Fear Itself
by redsandman99
Summary: 30 people. One hotel. No way out.
1. Welcome to the Briarwood Hotel

Jeff stared out the window was Matt crept along at not even twenty miles an hour. It was snowing like crazy outside and they had had the misfortune to get caught in it. The show that Chris, Matt and Jay were all scheduled to be at that night had been canceled, but that really didn't solve their current problem. They were still stuck on the dangerous icy roads and they needed to find some kind of shelter soon before they crashed the damn car.

"Maybe we should just pull over until this clears up," Jay suggested. He was sitting up front right alongside Matt while Jeff and Chris took up the back. Given his experiences out on the independent scene in Canada, he was used to this kind of travel conditions but that didn't make him any less nervous about the whole situation.

Matt shook his head. If he was scared about the situation they were in, he was doing a good job of hiding it. "I'm not sure where over even is," he said slowly. "Besides, I don't want us getting snowed in on the side of the road. If we're going to get snowed in anywhere, it's going to be in a nice, safe building."

Chris groaned slightly and shook his head. "Well we better find one of those soon before we die out here," he muttered. He was holding on to Jeff's hand way too tightly and his face was five shades paler than it normally was. Matt had already hit several patches of ice and had almost lost control of the car completely at one point, so Chris was way on edge. Jeff had tried to calm him back down but his efforts hadn't been working so far. Chris was paranoid about crashing and freezing to death and nothing was going to change that.

"Baby please calm down," Jeff pleaded. He didn't know why he was bothering but he figured it couldn't hurt to try again. "We're going to be fine. Matt knows I'll kick his fucking ass if he kills us."

"Yeah," Matt agreed with a chuckle. "I've got the fear of Jeffrey Nero in me."

Jay reached over and touched Matt's thigh with one hand while pointing to something up ahead with the other. "There's some lights up ahead there. We can go check them out and see if they lead anywhere helpful."

"Okay," Matt agreed. He began to carefully drive to where Jay was pointing, his grip on the steering wheel getting even more tight than it was before. The radio had been turned off a long time ago so Matt could concentrate more on driving, which allowed a very loud silence to take over the car.

Jeff let out a sigh and rested his head on Chris's shoulder. When Chris had begged him to come traveling with him again even though he was on a wrestling hiatus, he hadn't expected anything like this to happen. He had wanted to spend some time with Chris for once but now he was just wishing they were doing that at home, where it was safe. Home wasn't getting massive amounts of snow and it wasn't nearly as cold there. The only real bright side to the situation was that they were together. That was something at least.

Given how slow Matt was driving, it took them over a half an hour to get to the lights Jay had saw. Thankfully though, the time spent driving was worth it because the lights were coming from a hotel. "Oh thank God," Chris said in relief. "Let's get the hell inside."

"Oh yeah," Jeff agreed. That was a plan he could easily get behind. He opened the car door and got out, his body getting quite the shock from the frigid cold air. He had to wait until Matt walked around to the back of the car and opened the trunk so they could grab their suitcases and then bolt for the door.

"Whoa!" Jay yelled, nearly slipping and falling on a patch of ice. He managed to catch himself by grabbing Chris's arm, which did exactly go over that well.

"Watch it numb nuts!" Chris exclaimed. He had not appreciated being almost taken down right along with Jay.

"Fuck you Jericho," Jay said. He grabbed Matt's arm and hugged it tightly.

"Ha, you wish," Jeff said as Chris put his arm around him. "Only I get that privilege."

Matt rolled his eyes and opened the door so they could all go into the hotel. "You guys are ridiculous," he informed them. Absolutely fucking ridiculous."

Jeff stuck his tongue out at Matt before looking around the hotel lobby. It was quite big but it was hard to tell just how big because it wasn't really that well lit. There were huge chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, just hanging there ominously. There was some furniture off towards the side, right near a fireplace that was lit (that was where Melina, Eve, Kelly and Tiffany were all sitting). The hardwood floor had about three inches of dust on it and at the receptionist desk sat an old man, who smiled and revelaed that he was completely toothless as they approached him.

"More guests!" he said happily. He clapped his hands together and smiled wildly at them. "Oh yes, this is very good indeed. I'm glad you could make it. It's snowing so terribly out there. It's much better to be in here where it's nice and safe."

"Yeah," Matt agreed while Jay and Chris snickered and Jeff pretended to space out. There was something off about this old man. Jeff couldn't put his finger on it but he felt it. He definitely felt it for sure. "Do you mind if we rent two rooms for the night."

"Rent? Oh no no no. I can't charge you for these rooms," the old man said. He grabbed two sets of keys plus their duplicates and laid them down on the desk. "Here. You can stay here for as you need to."

Matt waved his hand and tried to politely refuse. "Sir really, that's very generous of you but we can't-"

"Oh please, I insist," the old man said. "Here at the Briarwood Hotel, your safety is what matters most to us. Besides, my staff all evacuated the building so they could be safe from the storm so you'll be fending for yourselves. I'm quite old and can't look after all of you fine people all by myself."

"Dude, quit trying to refuse his hospitality," Jay said, elbowing Matt in the ribs. "He's offering up free rooms! Let's just take them already."

Matt sighed and nodded. "Okay. Fine."

"Excellent! Your room numbers are on the keys-"

Feeling even more unexplainable uneasy, Jeff backed away from the desk and headed to the girls. "Jeff!" Eve said happily. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm traveling with Chris for awhile," he answered. He hopped over the back of the couch across from the women and grinned. "And now I'm spending time with you fine ladies." He took off his coat and gloves and set them aside. "Now if only it wasn't snowing like hell-"

"Oh God, I don't want to talk about the snow anymore," Kelly said. She grabbed Tiffany's hand and squeezed it tightly. "We almost died like a million times before we got here. It was horrible."

Tiffany nodded along. "It was. We were lucky this place was here. I don't know what we would have done if we would have had to keep driving."

"Is there anyone else here?" Jeff asked, smiling when he saw that Chris was coming over to join them.

Melina nodded. "A whole bunch of us. Adam and Randy arrived at the same time we did and Mark and Glenn and Phil arrived with the Psycho Parade a few minutes afterward."

"Oh joy," Chris said with a shake of his head. "There's nothing like being stuck in a hotel with the Lawsons."

Jeff smacked Chris's arm lightly. "They're not that bad," he said defensively. He knew the Lawsons scared the majority of the locker room but he liked them. For crazy serial killers they were actually quite entertaining to be around.

Chris snorted and shook his head. "Oh yeah, they're a laugh riot."

"You're just mad because Cooper is hotter than you'll ever be and he could steal Jeff from you in a heartbeat if he really wanted to," Melina said, getting an elbow from Eve and a glare from Jeff.

"Was that really necessary Mel?" Jeff asked.

Melina just shrugged. "Hey, I'm calling it like I see it. I think it's just too bad he doesn't play on my team. I could do things to him that-"

"Please don't finish that sentence," Tiffany begged. "You're not getting in Cooper's pants and that's that. You have a worse chance of getting in his pants than Michelle does getting into Mark's."

"That's just because Mark is a bisexual manwhore," Melina snapped.

Chris shook his head in amazement. "You're going to get it if he ever hears you saying that."

Melina just let out a defiant snort. She didn't give a shit. While she was better than she used to be, she was still kind of a bitch.

"Anyone else here that we should know about?" Jeff asked, deciding it would be wise to change the subject.

"Uh…" Tiffany stopped to think about that. "Layla and McSkank are here. I saw them when Kelly and I were putting our stuff in our room. Dolph here and Vickie isn't-"

"Thank God," Kelly interjected.

"Thank God indeed," Tiffany agreed. "And the only other people I know are here are Kofi and Evan. I think there's more though and I just haven't seen them yet."

Jeff nodded his head. "Cool." He tapped his fingers against his leg, feeling kind of antsy. The gesture did not go unnoticed by Chris and he put his hand in Jeff's out of concern. "Hey, what's the matter?" he asked.

Jeff hesitated for a moment before answering. "This place…it gives me a funny feeling."

"Funny ha-ha or funny strange?" Chris asked.

"Neither. It's more of a funny get the fuck out of here as fast as you can."

Chris raised his eyebrows and Jeff already knew that he didn't feel it. He could see it in his eyes. "I think you're overreacting a little bit," the blonde said gently. "I mean I admit that this place kind of has a creepy vibe but I'm not picking up the run away vibe like you are." He looked at the girls for support. "What about you guys?"

They all shook their head. "Sorry Jeff," Eve apologized. "We just don't feel it."

Jeff sighed and nodded along, even though he was far from assured. If this was in his head it still felt way too damn real. He couldn't lie to himself about that.

"Yo! You two! Let's go get our rooms!" Jay called out, beckoning Jeff and Chris to join him and Matt.

Chris gave Jeff a kiss on the cheek. "Look, we'll probably only be here for one night anyway. Tomorrow when it stops snowing and the roads clear up enough to drive, we'll be out of here. I promise."


	2. Overgrown Children

"Hey JoMo?"

"Yeah?"

"Is it just me or does it feel like we walked into a grocery store or something?"

John looked around at their surroundings, nodding at what Ron had said. The two of them had wandered into the hotel's pantry because they had gotten hungry and the mass amount of food they had to pick from was quite amazing. "Oh yeah, definitely. I'm not even sure where to start." He grabbed Ron's hand and laced his fingers through his. "Maybe we should have thought about what we wanted before coming in here."

"Yeah," Ron agreed. "Oh well, too late now, right?" He kissed John's hand and nuzzled his neck lovingly.

John rolled his eyes but didn't try to push Ron away. "Do you have to do that? That's distracting. How can I hunt for food when I'm distracted?"

"I don't know," Ron replied smugly. He was enjoying this way too much. "Maybe we should find out." He pinned John up against one of the shelves and kissed him, his large hands wondering up John's shirt so they could wonder all over his smooth abs and back. John kissed him back, getting quite lost in what they were doing until he happened to open his eyes and see something that was much more important than making out like a couple of teenagers. "Ron?"

"Yeah?"

"There's some Lucky Charms up on the top shelf over there. Get them for me."

Ron groaned loudly and gave John a look of disbelief. "Are you Jeff now or something? Did you really just chose Lucky Charms over me?"

"Only for the time being," John assured him. "Believe me, once I get my marshmallow cereal goodness, this Shaman of Sexy will be ready to rock your world all night."

"Oh my God. Tell me you did not just say that."

John and Ron looked over towards the door and saw Kofi poking his head into the pantry and making overly exaggerated disgusted faces at them. "I actually did just say that Booker T," John quipped, making Ron snicker loudly. "The question is, what are you going to do about it?"

"You'll find out soon enough," Kofi promised. "Truth, throw me and Evan some of that Captain Crunch by your head."

"What the hell, am I everyone's bitch now?" Ron asked.

"Well if it looks like a bitch and acts like a bitch…"

Ron grabbed the box of Captain Crunch and chucked it at Kofi's head. Kofi caught it and thought he had won but Ron wasn't done yet. He ran forward and tackled Kofi to the ground, starting an impromptu wrestling match between the two of them. "You two…" John sighed and shook his head, walking out of the pantry and seeing that Evan had hopped on to one of the counters to watch the wrestling from a safe place. "You are worse than children."

"Almost everyone here is worse than children," Evan pointed out. "The only people that aren't are Mark and Glenn and that's just because Glenn is so scary and Mark is the cranky grandpa."

John snorted loudly. "Mark's going to kill you if he hears you say that."

Evan paled significantly and hugged himself protectively. "You wouldn't tell him I said it, would you?"

For a moment John thought about being really mean and leading Evan on to believing he would do something like that but in the end he couldn't do that. Evan was too sweet to be mean to. "Of course not," he assured him. "Your words are safe with me." He glanced down and saw that Kofi had gotten the best of Ron and was trying to put him into the crossface. "Knock it off whore!" He kicked Kofi right in the ribs, making the former Intercontinental champion grunt in pain.

"Fucking shit," Kofi groaned. "You're an ass Mor."

"He smells like one too," Michelle said as she entered the room with Layla.

John scowled and flipped LayCool the bird. "Fuck you. Why couldn't you have gotten stuck in the snow?"

"Because you all needed our presence oh so desperately," Layla informed him. "Believe me, we're only here out of the kindness of our hearts."

Ron let out a giant snort as he and Kofi picked themselves up off the floor. "Riiight…I have a hard time believing that for some reason."

"Well luckily nobody cares about what you believe," Michelle snapped. She opened up the giant refrigerator doo so she and Layla could get what they wanted and while they were doing that, the boys all exchanged looks. Putting up with these two at work was bad enough, but having to deal with them now was just way too much to ask. John put his finger up to his lips and signaled for the others to stay quiet as he grabbed a paper towel and wadded it up into a little ball. He had a plan of attack.

"Where the hell is the bottled water in this place?" Michelle asked Layla. "They're not seriously expecting us to drink tap water are they?"

"Ewww, I hope not," Layla said, wrinkling her nose in disgust. "That would be so nasty."

"Hey," John said, barely hiding his snicker. "McSlutty. Scary Spice. Turn around."

Michelle and Layla both turned around to glare at him "Wha-"

"SPIDER!" John threw the paper towel right at their faces and they both screamed at the top of their lungs before running away in fear, absolutely convinced that there was a spider in that paper towel.

Kofi, Evan and Ron literally doubled over and held on to their ribs as they howled with laughter. "Oh my God!" Kofi gasped out. He tried to say something else but it just got completely lost.

John smirked triumphantly. _Me: one. LayCool: zero. Those bitches are so going down._

…

Mark didn't know why he was sitting at the hotel bar and restaurant waiting for James to stop running amuck so they could retire to their room for the night. James had the tendency to turn into a little monster whenever he hung around anyone outside the immediate circle of wrestlers he hung out with and tonight was no exception. At the moment he was in the corner with Adam, Randy and Daniel Bryan of all people (one of those things did NOT belong there) and the four of them were obviously plotting some kind of evil shit. Mark was the only one giving a damn about it though. Dolph was too busy playing bartender and talking to Cody, who was pretending to listen while giving Ted and Maryse dirty looks while they were talking to Mike. Cody and Ted had not had the nicest of break-ups and Ted was now being an ass by turning his on-screen partnership with Maryse into a real life "romance" that was constantly flaunted in Cody's face. Maryse didn't even care that she was being used. She was getting attention that she enjoyed and that was all that mattered to her.

"Mark."

Mark looked over and saw that Glenn had shooed Phil over to Dolph and Cody so the two of them could talk alone. "What?"

Glenn looked around to make sure the others weren't listening in on them before speaking. "Have you felt it?"

"Felt what?"

"Don't play dumb with me. You know what.

Mark did know what but that didn't mean he wanted to have this conversation. "Glenn you're overreacting."

"I'm overreacting?" Great, now Glenn looked pissed. "How can you of all people say that to me?"

"Because I'm the older brother," Mark pointed out. "And old hotels like this are always filled with harmless little ghosts and that's just what we're picking up on. Nothing more."

Glenn didn't look convinced but luckily for Mark, James decided that was the right moment to reveal he had a stash of Roman candles with him and he, Bryan, Adam and Randy were now firing them at everyone. "LAWSON!" Mark bellowed, barely ducking a fireball that went right by his head. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING? PUT THOSE OUT THIS INSTANT!"

"We can't Marky!" James informed him.

"YOU FUCKING BETTER! ARE YOU TRYING TO START A FIRE?"

"Maybe." James cackled and revealed just exactly where Connor got that trait from. Mark just about went over there and killed him but stopped when he saw Cooper walk in and manage to get James's attention without even needing to try.

"Dad is Connor with you?"

James's maniacal look faded away in an instant. "No. I thought he was with you."

"Well he's not."

Mark and Glenn exchanged looks and then groaned loudly. _Great,_ Mark thought to himself, _now where the hell did that kid run off to?_


	3. Mary and Lucy

Connor knew he wasn't really supposed to wonder off by himself. That had been a rule his entire life because James and Cooper were always so afraid that he was going to go and get into really big trouble or get really really lost. And for the most part he honestly didn't mind the constant supervision. Cooper and James were what he knew so why would he mind having to always be with them? But there were times he did wander off because he wanted to do something and Cooper and James were being too slow so he had to do it on his own. This was one of those times but the bad part was, he didn't know exactly what it was he was trying to do. He had just felt extremely compelled to go out on his own and since he lacked the little voice in the back of his head telling him not to do things like that, he went ahead and did it. He had wandered off and now was in a part of the hotel that seemed to be devoid of any kind of life.

Hugging himself tightly, Connor kept walking, his eyes really trying to adjust to the dimly lit halls. The light bulbs were either really old and weak or they were covered in dust, taking away from their effectiveness. The walls were stained and the wallpaper on them was peeling and the carpeted floors creeked with every step he took. He was desperately missing Snoopy at the moment and he wished that James hadn't tricked him into letting the beagle stay with his assistant Julie while they traveled with Mark for a couple of weeks. Snoopy didn't do very well on the road and after the last time he had run off chasing a rabbit and nearly got hit by a truck, James said that they couldn't risk bringing him anymore. Connor had agreed at the time because he hadn't wanted Snoopy to ever get almost hit again but now he really wished his puppy was around. This place was giving him the creeps and he could have really used the company right about now.

"Hello?" he called out, wondering if Cooper had noticed he was gone yet. He probably had and was probably really mad about it. Cooper always got mad at him for doing stuff like this. When he finally caught up with him he was probably going to yell and stuff. Cooper liked to yell and be dramatic and James and Mark would let him do it because they were poopy heads like that. _Maybe I should duct tape his mouth shut. That will keep stupid Coopy quiet._

The sound of some very faint singing caught Connor's attention, making him frown and tilt his head to the side. The singing didn't sound like it was coming from anyone he knew. It was definitely a girl's voice but it sounded like it belonged to a little girl. Now very curious, Connor walked towards the sound of the voice, not paying any attention to where exactly it was he was going to. All he was focused on was getting closer to the voice, which he eventually did by finding a little girl inside one of the bedrooms. She was a very small thing, with a head that was way too big for her body and age wise she couldn't have been more than seven years old. She had very long brown hair; it was actually almost touching the floor, which was where she was sitting. "Who are you?" Connor asked, not actually caring that he was the one being rude by going into a room uninvited.

The little girl looked up at him and startled him by revealing that her pupils were pure white. "Mary," she replied. "What's your name?"

"Connor." Connor ventured a little closer, not sure what the hell to make of this girl. "Are you blind?"

"No," Mary replied. "Why would you ask that?"

"Because your eyes are all funny."

"My grandpa said my eyes are special." Mary patted the floor right next to her. "Do you want to play with me?"

Connor took a moment to think about that. Mary had a lot of dolls and he thought playing with dolls was something that was too girly for him to do. But the girl herself was still holding his interest so he sat down next to her and picked up one of her dolls. "Why do they still have their heads on?"

Mary seemed to be confused by that question. "Why wouldn't they have heads?"

"Well don't you cut their heads off if they are infidels? That's what I do to my G.I. Joe dolls."

Mary was still very confused. "What's an infidel?"

"I dunno," Connor replied. "But I know it's something naughty."

"Oh." Mary took a little hairbrush and began brushing one of the doll's hair. "I got these dolls from my mommy. I have to take very good care of them."

"Why? Will she get mad if you don't?"

"Grandpa will. Mommy died a very long time ago and-"

"What did she die of? Did she get cancer? My mommy got cancer. Or did she get hit by a truck? I almost got hit by a truck once. It was scary."

"She died giving birth to me and my sissy," Mary informed him. "Grandpa raised us since then."

"What about your daddy? Where was he?"

Mary just shrugged. "I don't know. Nobody has ever told me."

"Oh." Connor began playing with the doll's hair, unsure about what to do now. If he couldn't play with these damn things properly then what the hell was he supposed to do with them? "I have a brother. His name is Cooper."

Mary began to fiddle with the hem of the light blue dress she was wearing. "Is he nice?"

"Sometimes. Is your sister nice?"

Mary immediately shook her head. "No. She's-" She stopped suddenly and glanced nervously towards the door. Connor frowned and strained his ears to listen but he couldn't hear anything. "What is it?" he asked. "What's the matter?"

"She's coming," Mary whispered. She was scooting away from the door, her whole body trembling slightly.

"Who?" Connor was confused as hell and he didn't like it. It added to the strange foreboding he suddenly felt.

Mary didn't answer. She just hugged her doll tightly as the door swung open and in walked another little girl. Much to Connor's horror, a little girl who looked exactly like Mary came into the room. She had the same very long brown hair, the same big head, the same pale skin and facial features…she even had on the same small blue dress that Mary was wearing. The only real difference between the two of them were their eyes. While Mary's eyes were pure white, this girl's eyes were pure black. Connor felt like he was staring into an abyss that wanted to swallow him whole and he did not like it. He didn't like twins anyway (especially brunette ones) because The Shining had scared the ever living shit out of him as a kid and the two little girls in it had been the worst part for him.

"Hi Lucy," Mary said hesitantly, flinching as Lucy slammed the door shut behind her.

"Who's this?" Lucy asked, her black eyes glaring holes into Connor.

"Connor," Mary answered with a gulp. "He's playing with me."

Lucy's eyes narrowed but she didn't say anything in response to that. She just walked over to the bed and sat down on it, humming very quietly under her breath. Mary looked at her uneasily before turning her attention back on Connor. "Do you like it here Connor?"

Connor shrugged. "It's okay. This place is old though. Like older than my daddy and Marky."

Mary giggled at that. "Is that really old?"

"You have NO idea." Connor picked up another doll and held it up to the one he already had a hold of. "Ha! They're going to be lesbians!"

"Lesbians…?"

Connor raised his eyebrows. "Damn, you don't know anything, do you?" He shook his head, secretly happy he found someone not very smart. A lot of people said he was stupid so it was nice to have someone else be dumber than him for a change. "Lesbians are girls who have sex with girls."

"Oh. Why would they do that?"

"I don't know. I don't like girls like that. I saw a naked booby once and then I ran away." Connor glanced at Lucy from the corner of his eye, not liking the way she was just staring at him. It didn't even look like she had eyes. It just looked like she had two holes in her head that were going to eat him and that was not fair because he did not want to be eaten.

Mary noticed the way he was looking at Lucy and tried to bring his attention back to her. "Connor-" Her voice died as Lucy leaned forward and continued staring at Connor. "Lucy stop it! Don't do that!"

"Are you sure you don't like it here?" Lucy's voice had turned much lower that Mary's and Connor found himself involuntarily shuddering at it.

"I'm sure," he said, trying to keep his voice from trembling.

Lucy smirked. "Well I think you should start liking it better."

"Why?"

"Because you're never leaving."

The words were like a cold hard slap to the face and Connor just blinked at her stupidly for the longest time, not sure if he had heard her right. When he realized he did, he slowly got up to his feet. "I don't want to play no more," he said uneasily. "I think I'm gonna go now." He stumbled towards the door and tried to get out only to discover it was locked. "What the…" He twisted the knob and pulled on it as hard as he could but he couldn't get it open, which really freaked him out. "It's broken!" He started pounding on the door with his fist. "Why are you broken? Work damn it!"

The sound of giggling made him turn back around and he saw that Lucy had gotten up and was now squeezing Mary's hand so tightly that it was nearly crushing it. "Come play with us Connor," Lucy ordered. "Forever and ever and-"

"SHUT UP!" Connor screamed. "SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!"

"Lucy stop!" Mary begged. "You're scaring him and OW! You're hurting me!" She tried to pull herself free from her sister's grip but she wasn't going anywhere. Lucy was making sure of that.

"Come play with us Connor. Forever and ever and ever. Come play with us Connor. Forever and ever and ever." Over and over she kept repeating that but it didn't stop there. Her head actually started to do a full on Exorcist twist each and every time she started saying the phrase. Connor's jaw dropped and he just stood there and watched it go, almost really slipping into shock. Mary whimpered and cried as Lucy continued on with her freaky ways, showing absolutely no signs of stopping.

"-play with us Connor. Forever and-"

Connor finally couldn't take it anymore. He kicked his foot out violently, wanting to kick her out the window even though it was wrong to hit little girls. His foot went right through her though and she laughed as he jumped back from fright. "You're all going to die," she sang song. "You're all going to die. You're all going to die. You're all going to die…"

Connor whimpered and tried the door again, this time managing to get it open. He ran out of the room, blindly almost tripping over his own feet as he ran the fuck away. "COOPER! DADDY! HELP ME!"

…

"God this place blows," Natalya muttered as she paced around the room she was sharing with Beth. "No TV, no internet…what the fuck kind of place is this?

Beth shook her head, typing something up on her laptop since it wasn't like she could surf the web or anything. "I don't know. I'm just going to be glad to get the fuck out of here. It's way too fucking boring."

Natalya nodded in agreement. "You think we should go and find the others. I'm sure they can find a way to-"

"HELP! HELP ME! COOPY!"

Beth just about knocked her laptop off to the floor as she jumped up. "Is that-"

"Connor!" Natalya immediately opened her door and took off running, not caring whether Beth caught up or not. She had known Connor since she was a little kid. James had hung out with her father and the rest of the Hart Foundation back in the day and she was actually James's god daughter while Bret and Owen were Cooper and Connor's "uncles". So needless to say, she felt a bond toward the Lawsons not a lot of people felt and she always treated Connor like her little brother. He was very special to her and hearing him scream like that terrified her.

"DADDY! COOPY! WHERE ARE YOU?"

"Connor!" Natalya yelled, rounding the corner and colliding right into him. Immediately she wrapped her arms around his waist and held him upright, only stumbling slightly from the impact of their collision. "Connor! What's the matter? What happened?"

Connor burst into tears and hugged her tightly. He couldn't even speak because he was so scared and that worried her because she had never seen him like this before. "Connor please," she pleaded as Beth joined them. "What-"

"CONNOR!" Connor's screaming had paid off because James, Cooper, Tiffany, Glenn and Mark had all come to see what the hell was going on.

"DADDY!" Connor practically jumped right into James's arms. "I want to go home! I want to go home I don't like it here! I don't like it here please take me home!"

James shook his head in confusion. "What happened? What's going on? I don't understand-"

"There were two little girls! They were twins and one was kind of nice but she had these white eyes and then there was the mean one and she had black eyes and she said I had to play with her forever and ever and that we couldn't leave because we're all going to DIE! And her head kept spinning around and around and around and-" He gasped as he saw something down the hallway. "NO! DADDY THAT'S THEM! THAT'S THEM DADDY!"

Natalya raised her fist, ready to go all Ghostbusters on whatever the hell it was that was scaring Connor so badly-but there was one slight problem.

There was absolutely nobody there.


	4. What's Eating Connor Lawson

The entire hotel had heard Connor's screaming; it had been practically impossible NOT to hear it. And while everyone was wondering what the hell the cause of it was, not very many of them were all that eager to go up there and check the situation out for themselves. In fact (and this absolutely disgusted Jeff) some of them were taking advantage of the situation by badmouthing Connor when he wasn't around to even try to defend himself.

"So what do you think that little freak saw?" Mike asked as he leaned back in the chair he had stolen from behind the front desk. He was chewing his gum obnoxiously loud as he talked, which just made him that much more annoying than he already was.

"Maybe he saw the boogeyman," Ted joked. He had Maryse on his lap and he was letting his hands wander towards places that nobody wanted to see them wander (especially Cody, who was in the corner privately seething).

"The boogeyman? No way. I bet he saw Sandy Claws," Dolph said. "You know that he comes down the chimney and eats people and steals their presents." Connor had told absolutely everyone that during the holidays and it was the source of amusement for some people.

"Oh my God, would you stop?" Eve asked as she glared at him, Ted and Mike. "Leave him alone, what did he ever do to you?"

"Well gee, let me think…" Mike put his hand up to his chin and stroked his chin. "He's a fucking psychopathic killer that should have been locked up in a nuthouse years ago."

Bryan raised his eyebrows and shook his head. "So you think making fun of serial killers is a smart idea?"

Having it put like that made Mike falter and Jeff couldn't help but snicker at the stupid look on the Miz's face. "I…I uh…dude just keep your mouth shut over there! Nobody asked you!"

"Nobody asked you to speak either," Chris pointed out. He was standing behind Jeff with his arms wrapped around the younger man's waist and his chin resting on his shoulder. "So why don't you just do us all a favor and shut your mouth?" He smirked as Mike flipped him off. "Oh yes, that's REAL mature Junior."

Michelle shook her head and flipped her long blonde hair back. "Who even cares what that little retard saw? Like seriously-"

"You need to shut the fuck up," Jeff growled, actually trying to go over there to get in her face only to be held back by Chris and Matt. "You hear me? Just shut your fucking mouth."

Michelle raised her eyebrows and put her hands on her hips. "Or what? Are you going to make me shut up?"

"If he doesn't I will," Melina promised. Kelly and Eve nodded along, both of them ready to back her up if they were needed. Michelle and Layla were pretty much hated by everyone in the locker room so there were an army of people who were willing to line up around the block to kick their ass.

"You're going to get yourself killed if James and Cooper EVER hear saying that shit," Kofi warned her. "I hope you know that."

Michelle scoffed and put her arm around Layla's shoulder. "Oh please…they don't scare me." That was a bold face lie and everyone in the room knew it. The Lawsons would have Michelle screaming and begging for mercy in about two seconds flat if they EVER found out what had just come out of her mouth.

Maryse shook her head and gave Michelle the evil eye. "Connor is a sweetheart," she declared, shocking the hell out of everyone around her. "You just don't like him because his daddy's boyfriend won't fuck you in your plastic vagina."

"Whoa! Hold the phone there Frenchie!" John said with a shake of his head. "How do you know McSlutty has a plastic vagina?"

"I'm not sure if I want her to answer that," Matt said with a wince. "That's just way too much information right there."

"I do NOT have a plastic vagina!" Michelle said.

"Yeah," Layla chimed in. "If anyone here has a plastic vagina, it's you!"

Now it was Ted's turn to add his two cents. "Believe me, she doesn't. It is as real as a vagina can get."

Chris made a face and hugged Jeff tighter. "Why couldn't we be upstairs having sex like Adam and Randy? I really don't want to be a part of this conversation any more."

Jay walked over to Phil and elbowed him lightly in the ribs. "So what do you think Connor saw?"

Phil just shrugged. "Fuck if I know. But I do know the next time James starts in on me, I'm fucking feeding Michelle to him. Her big mouth just got me the biggest get out of jail free card ever."

Jeff rolled his eyes. Leave it to Phil to only care about that. Then again though, he kind of had an excuse because the Lawsons lived to torture him. "Let's go check on him ourselves," he whispered to Chris. "Come on." He started trying to go but frowned when Chris hesitated. "What? What's the matter?"

"Are you sure it's safe to go up there?" Chris asked. "I mean Connor sounded really freaked out and shit. And Lawsons and freaked out don't exactly make for good combinations."

Jeff knew that this was true but he didn't care. He was concerned and he was going to go find out what was going on whether anyone liked it or not. "I can go by myself you know," he said with a shrug. "If you're scared."

Chris shook his head. He was not about to let Jeff go up there by himself. "No. It's fine. If you want to go then I'll go with you."

Jeff smiled and kissed Chris's cheek. "Thank you baby."

"Yeah, no problem…"

…

"Daddy they were real!" Connor insisted as he gasped to regain his breath. He had been taken into Natalya and Beth's room where he had been placed on the nearest bed. He had already tried to get up several times but nobody would let him. He wanted to try again but Tiffany was hugging him and he didn't want to accidentally hurt her because he liked her. "They were real and they were scary and I want to go HOME!"

James was at a complete and totally loss about what to do. "Connor I didn't see-"

"They disappeared when I screamed!" Connor said stubbornly. "They did they did they did!" Letting out another sob, he turned to Tiffany for support. "You believe me don't you?"

"Of course I do," she automatically said. She meant it too. She and Connor were crazy close and she was actually more often than not Connor's official babysitter.

"Don't encourage him," Cooper said with a shake of his head. "He probably didn't see what he thought he saw. This is an old hotel and he has a fear of The Shining so-"

"And who's fault is that?" Natalya asked, whirling around and giving Cooper a nasty took. "YOU showed him that movie when he was six and it scared the fuck out of him!"

"That wasn't my fault though! It wasn't like I made him watch it!"

"No, you just let him do it and then tormented him with it every time you got on your nerves! You fucking asshole!" Natalya actually tried to go at Cooper but Beth put herself in between them to diffuse the situation a little bit.

"We can NOT be doing this right now," Beth said firmly. "Right now, we have to figure out whether Connor saw a real ghost or-"

"They were REAL!" Connor yelled, his voice going hoarse because of all his screaming. "They were real and I want to go home! Take me home Daddy! Right now!"

"I can't," James said helplessly, which was the wrong thing to say.

"Yes you can!" Connor insisted. "You take me home right now Daddy! Right now!"

"Connor it's below freezing outside right now," James said gently. "I don't even think I can get the car started. And even if I did, a foot of snow has fallen since we got here and it's still coming down. There's no way I can drive us anywhere without getting us killed."

"Well the ghosts said we were going to die if we stayed here!" Connor shrieked. "I'd rather freeze than stay here! Let me go freeze Daddy! I'll freeze and then-"

"Connor stop," James ordered sharply. "You are not freezing to death and that's final." He ran his hand over Connor's hair. "Look, I'll take Tweedledee and Tweedledum over here-"

"Why am I Tweedledum?" Glenn asked unhappily.

James just smirked. "If you can't figure that out then you're just proving my point further Cripsy."

Mark rolled his eyes as Glenn growled. "Don't start you two." He went closer to the bed and gave Connor a serious look. "Do you remember where you saw these ghosts?"

"No," Connor sniffled. "I don't remember. I wasn't paying attention."

"Of course not," Mark muttered. He let out a loud sigh and motioned for James and Glenn to follow him. "Come on."

"Where are we going?" James asked in confusion.

"Ghost hunting."

"NO!" Connor screeched, actually jumping off the bed and wrapping his arms and legs around James's body like he was an octopus or something. "No no no no! Don't you take my daddy anywhere asshole!"

"Connor!" James said, trying to detangle Connor from him to no avail. Connor was not moving and that was that.

"Forget it," Glenn said impatiently. He grabbed Mark by the arm and gave it a good yank. "Let's go. We'll go check this out ourselves."

"But-"

"Dude, what are you, a woman? You can go somewhere without your man for just a little bit."

"Excuse me?" Beth said, her and Natalya actually stepping right up to him and giving him a furious look. Tiffany was actually doing the same thing but she was doing it from the safe distance that was behind James. "What was that?"

"Yeah," Natalya said. "Say that again for us would you please?"

"…I think we should go before you put your fucking foot in your mouth again," Mark grunted. Now it was him who was yanking on his brother's arm. "Come on. We've got a couple ghosts to find."

Glenn shook his head and followed Mark out the door, muttering stuff under his breath as he went. Cooper watched them go, shaking his head and then eyeing Natalya and Beth carefully. "Damn. You bitches are tough. Remind me to trick Mark into bugging you in a dark alley so you can kick his ass."


	5. Watchful Eyes

James rubbed Connor's back, trying to get his son to calm down even though it didn't appear that it would happen any time soon. Connor was so beyond freaked out that it wasn't even funny. Every time James even tried to set him down to sit by himself he began to whimper and cling to him even more. "Jesus Christ Connor," he finally said with a sigh. "Do you want like a sedative or something?" Normally he never thought about drugging his own child but he honestly did not know what else to do. Connor's hysteria was starting to freak him the fuck out.

"Here, let me take him," Cooper offered. He grabbed Connor's arms and started trying to pry him off of James. Connor tried to refuse to go at first but Cooper persisted and finally forced Connor off of James and on to his lap.

"Meanie," Connor sniffled as he buried his face into the crook of Cooper's neck.

"Yeah yeah whatever," Cooper said dismissively.

Tiffany sighed and reached over to gently stroke Connor's hair. "Poor baby. You want me to go get you anything?"

"No," Connor said, giving her a fearful look. "Don't go out there. They might get you."

"Nobody is getting anyone," Cooper said, forcing Connor's head back so that they made eye contact. "You hear me? Crispy Critter and Captain Fuckwad will fucking straighten this shit out or I'll put my boot up their asses for being incompetent."

James blinked and stared at Cooper in disbelief. "Did you just call my Marky Captain Fuckwad?"

"Yes I did actually," Cooper confirmed. "What are you going to do about it?"

Beth snickered as James tried to come up with a response. "I kind of like it. It seems fitting in a way."

"Yeah," Natalya agreed. She was pacing back and forth, unable to sit down for a single second. She was way too antsy and she didn't know what the fuck to do with herself. "Believe me, with the way he can be sometimes, it's very fitting."

"Leave my Marky alone," James said with a pout. "He's not even here to defend himself you asses!"

"Like he would say much of anything," Cooper said, going into his anti-Mark mode because it seemed to be distracting Connor. "He's getting senile in his old age."

"He's only a month older than me!" James pointed out. "Are you saying that I'm old too?"

Cooper snickered and deliberately hugged Connor tighter just so he could have a human shield. "Well if the shoe fits…"

"Nattie!"

"I got it Uncle James." Natalya reached over and gave Cooper a big old slap to the back of the head, making him yelp, James cheer and Tiffany giggle. Connor's lips twitched and he almost did smile but then it died on him at the last second.

There was a knock on the door and Beth walked across the room and opened it, revealing that Jeff and Chris were the ones on the other side. "Hey," she said, stepping aside so they could come on in. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We actually came to check on Connor," Chris replied as he shut the door behind them. "We heard him screaming and we wanted to make sure he was okay."

Cooper and James glanced at each other, each of them pretty skeptical of that. They could believe that out of Jeff but Chris always seemed to go out of his way to avoid them so they couldn't really buy that coming from him.

"I saw two little ghost girls," Connor said, even though announcing that was probably not the best idea in the world. Mark always said the more people who knew about that kind of stuff, the more chances there were of fear and paranoia spreading like wildfire.

Jeff raised his eyebrows and joined Cooper, Connor and Tiffany on the bed. "Ghosts?"

"Yeah," Connor said with a nod. "There was one that was okay and she had white eyes and her name was Mary and she was kind of nice but Lucy was evil and she had black eyes and her head spun around and around-"

"Connor!" Cooper said sharply.

"What?" Connor snapped back. "It's true Coopy!"

Chris let out a small snort of skepticism. "Ghosts? Are you saying this hotel is haunted?"

"We don't know that for sure," Beth said with a shrug. "All we know is that he saw something that scared the shit out of him and he wants to go home."

"That's right," Connor confirmed. "But Daddy is mean and won't take me home so we're probably all going to die-"

"Connor!" Now it was James's turn to speak up. "Nobody is dying on my watch. Do you hear me?"

Jeff could see the disbelief in Connor's eyes so he leaned forward and knocked heads with the younger man. "Your dad's right. Nobody is going to die here, okay?"

Connor chewed on his lower lip and moved off of Cooper's lap so he could sit on Jeff's lap. "You promise?"

Jeff nodded. "Yeah. I promise."

…

"Famous last words," Lucy said with a smirk. Unbeknownst to everyone in the room, she and Mary were watching them that whole time. "Oh Mr. Jeffrey Nero, you should really not make promises you can't keep."

Mary didn't say anything, instead trying to focus on the little China doll she was holding. She was trying to block all of this out because she knew what Lucy was doing. Lucy was invading people's brains without their permission so she could start playing her little games. Mary hated these little games because they were always so scary. So many people got hurt by them and there wasn't anything she could do to make it stop. She had tried asking Lucy not to do it a thousand times but it never worked. Lucy did what she wanted and there was nothing she could do about it.

Lucy glared down at Mary, pure contempt shining in her black eyes. "What's the matter? You don't want to play?"

Mary shook her head and hugged her doll tightly. "I like them. I want to let them go."

Lucy threw her head back and laughed, chilling her sister to the bone. "Let them go? Really Mary? And WHY would we do that?"

"Because-" Mary didn't get to finish. Lucy had already bopped her on the side of the face and she immediately fell silent, only letting out a slight whimper of pain.

"You are so fucking useless," Lucy snarled, ripping her twin up to her feet by her hair. "Why are you even still here? I don't need you I can do this myself!"

Mary just hung her head, unsure how to answer that. By all rights, she should be wherever people go after they die but still she lingered on, watching everything Lucy did and unable to stop any of it. "I'm sorry," she said softly.

"Whatever." Lucy grabbed Mary by the hand and yanked her back up to her feet and pulled her along without saying another word. Mary didn't even think about asking where they were going. It would just make Lucy mad again and it wasn't like she would get an answer out of her. Lucy was just going to do what she wanted and that was that.

…

Cody rubbed his arms, shivering despite the fact that he was wearing a pretty warm turtleneck. He was standing outside of Ted's rooms, listening to the soft moans and giggles that were coming from inside of there. He really really needed to stop this. He knew this was getting absolutely out of control. He had to let this all go. He and Ted were over. He had to suck it up and move on. Ted obviously didn't give a shit about him any more. He was too busy romping around with Maryse and Cody needed to do something similar with someone else (no way he would ever touch Maryse-he didn't go for skanks). He needed to have some kind of rebound so he could get over all this bullshit and then start fresh all over again.

But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't bring himself to do it. Maybe it was because Ted was always flaunting Maryse in his face. Maybe it was because he was so weak and pathetic that he still loved Ted even though it went totally unappreciated now. Maybe it was just because he was a glutton for punishment. Who knew? All he did know was that all he could really do was obsess over this whole situation, wishing that Maryse would just go the fuck away so he could have his Ted back. If Maryse would just go away then his problems would be solved. Fucking skank…poisoning his Ted with her skankness. It had to stop and it had to stop now.

He reached for the doorknob to just burst in but stopped when he heard Ted grunt and Maryse moan something in French. His eyes suddenly became blurry with tears and he had to walk away from there as fast as he could because he couldn't take it. Every time he heard them together it made him shrivel up inside and put him to the point where he just wanted to curl up in a ball and die. What if Ted actually loved her more than he ever loved him? What if she was better than him in some way? He tried to tell himself that that was impossible but he never believed it. The paranoia persisted in the back of his mind and it lingered on, making him completely insane.

He walked past Jay and Matt but he didn't stop as they called out his name. He just kept going until he was in his room and then he threw himself down on the bed and pulled the covers over his head. He didn't know what to do with himself at this point. He didn't even have anyone he could talk to about this. He was alone.

Completely and utterly alone.

…

Mary felt so bad as she watched Cody. His sadness was rolling off of him in waves and there was nothing she could do about it with Lucy right there with her. Lucy wouldn't let her comfort him at all. Lucy fed off this kind of stuff and Cody was giving her a big time dose of what she craved the most. Fear, despair, pain…she was getting stronger and Mary hated it. The stronger Lucy got, the worst things would become and it would just be more horrors that Mary would have to bear witness too.

"Soon," Lucy said, squeezing Mary's hand so hard that she nearly broke it. "Soon…"

…

"I feel like we're chasing our damn tails," Mark muttered under his breath. Because Connor couldn't give them an exact location of where he saw the ghosts, he and Glenn had been searching through the entire hotel to absolutely no avail. It was undeniable that there was some kind of presence amongst them but he couldn't get a good read on it, which made him uneasy.

"That's because we are," Glenn replied. He was getting beyond frustrated with their current situation. "Whatever is here, it's hiding now. I don't think we're going to find it by just looking."

"So what do you suggest we do?" Mark asked as he ran his hand through his hair.

Glenn smirked at the question. "You're actually leaving it up to me?"

"No, I'm just asking you for your opinion."

"Oh yeah, I know how that goes. You ask me and then you do the opposite of what I say. Well fuck you sir. You fucking come up with an answer and I'll disagree with it like you would to me."

Mark glared at him. Why did he have to be so difficult. "Fine," he grunted. He began to go through the list of options they had. They could summon whatever was in this place and attempt to get rid of it but if it wasn't a ghost or if the ghosts were stronger than average or if there were just too many of them, they would run the risk of pissing them off and causing all sorts of damage instead of helping the situation. And since it just wasn't him and Glenn he had to worry about, he didn't want to do that. There were twenty eight other people in the hotel who wouldn't know what to do if shit got crazy and with James there too it helped seal Mark's decision. "I say we lay low for the night and get the hell out of here in the morning," he finally said.

"Coward," Glenn taunted just to be an ass.

"Fuck you Crispy. What do you want me to do? Potentially put Phil in danger?"

"You're not worried about him. You're worried about fucking Lawson."

"Well that benefits Phil too though, doesn't it?"

Glenn just grunted and stormed off and Mark could only roll his eyes and follow him. "Oh yeah Baby Brother, that's real mature!"

"Fuck you and go to hell asshole."

"You first sweetheart."

…

Lucy's eyes narrowed as she watched the Brothers of Destruction walk away. "I don't like them," she declared, which was a very bad thing. When she didn't like someone bad things happened to them. Very very bad things.

"Does that mean they'll be first?" Mary asked innocently.

Lucy thought about it and then slowly shook her head. "No. Glenn is weak for that Phil. I smell it from a mile away. And Mark…" She stopped and giggled. "He has no idea how weak I can make him. He's so strong and arrogant…oh how I love a challenge." She rubbed her hands together gleefully and giggled again. Mary quickly closed her eyes and tried to block it out. The games were going to start soon. It was only a matter of time now.


	6. Snowed In

Jeff woke up the next morning to the feeling of Chris gently kissing his neck. "Mmmm," he said, trying to wiggle away because it tickled. "Stop that."

"Why?" Chris asked as he continued doing exactly what he was doing. "You know you like it."

"But I'm trying to sleep," Jeff said with a pout. "You know I didn't get any sleep last night." He opened his eyes and sighed tiredly. "I don't know how you did it."

Chris just shook his head. "Well I didn't take this whole thing as seriously as you did," he pointed out. "I love you babe but you've been taking this whole thing way too seriously. Connor's got way too big of an imagination."

"So you're saying you don't believe he saw anything?" Jeff asked.

"Honestly? No."

Jeff made a face at his boyfriend. "What if I told you I felt something funny about this place? And it's not just because Connor says he saw two ghosts. I've had a funny feeling about this place since we got here." He pushed Chris off of him so he could sit up. "There's something not right about this place. I don't know what it is but I feel it." He rubbed the back of his neck and yawned. "I know you probably don't believe me but I don't care. The sooner we get out of here, the better I'll feel."

Chris nodded along. "Okay, fair enough." He began kissing Jeff's neck again, smirking as the younger man gave him a playful glare. "We'll get up and shower and then we'll pack our things and see about getting out of here. How does that sound?"

"It sounds good," Jeff said. "But what you're doing is not going to lead to any of that."

"Sure it will," Chris countered. He started kissing Jeff's flesh harder, nibbling on it just a little bit to get a reaction out of him. "I mean, what's the point of getting in the shower if we're not all sweaty and dirty?"

Jeff couldn't help but grin at that. "Do you know how hard it is to stay annoyed with you when you use logic like that?"

"Yes," Chris answered. "Why do you think I keep doing it?"

Jeff pretended to huff angrily and went to give him a playful slap on the chest. Chris caught his wrist though and tried to pin it down, which led to a short wrestling match that saw Jeff almost falling off the bed before Chris pulled him back and rolled them over so he was the one on top. "I win," he said smugly.

"I let you win," Jeff claimed. He tried to wiggle out of Chris's grip so he could be on top but he failed. Chris was too strong for him and he finally just had to give up and pout. "I could have so won if I had wanted to."

"Okay, whatever you say darling." Chris was a little bit condescending with those words but Jeff didn't get a chance to say anything to him. Chris was kissing deeply before he knew what hit him and he immediately kissed him back, wrapping his legs and arms around him so he could pull him even closer. They were both clad in only their boxers and Jeff's shameless grinding soon turned them into a very cruel barrier. "God damn it babe," Chris groaned.

Jeff smirked and snaked one of his hands down Chris's boxers, gripping the hard member inside and running his thumb over the head. "I think…" he licked his lips as Chris began to grab at the waistband of his boxers "we should…" he lifted his hips up so Chris could actually take his underwear off "take the party to the shower."

"Oh yeah?" Chris tossed Jeff's boxers across the room and started thrusting against his hand. "And why is that?"

"Well we could get clean while we get dirty."

A smile spread across Chris's face. "You're brilliant babe. Absolutely brilliant."

"I'm glad you think so." Jeff pushed Chris off of him and ran towards the bathroom, looking back and laughing when he saw Chris fall over while stripping.

"You didn't see that," Chris told him. "Okay? Whatever you think you saw, you didn't see it."

"Got it," Jeff said with a nod. He went into the bathroom and stepped into the shower, turning on the water just as the now naked Chris entered the room.

"Fun fact: that floor hurts," Chris said with a nod.

"Good to know." Jeff waited until Chris was in the shower before wrapping his arms around his neck and jumping up so he could hook his legs around his waist. Chris pressed him against the wall to help hold him and their kissing resumed in earnest. Chris's fingers began to probe at Jeff's hole and Jeff immediately began to buck against them, trying to force their entry.

"Didn't anyone tell you that good things come to those who wait?" Chris asked.

Jeff shook his head. "Fuck waiting. I want you-" A low rumbling from the pipes startled them both. "Uh…what the hell?" Jeff tried to wriggle out of Chris's grasp but Chris wouldn't put him down. "Chris-"

Chris shook his head and frowned. "Jeff-"

A loud bang reverberated through the room and suddenly the water went from pleasantly warm to beyond scalding hot. It literally felt like someone just poured boiling water right on top of them and they both screamed in pain. "Holy fuck!" Chris bellowed, jumping right out of the shower without thinking and slipping on the tile floor, causing himself to come crashing down directly on top of Jeff. "Shit!" he quickly propped himself up and stared down at Jeff in concern. "Are you okay?"

Jeff groaned loudly. He was definitely going to feel that later. "I'm fine," he lied. He carefully sat up and gingerly rubbed the back of his head. The steam from the water was filling the room so fast that they were nearly choking on it.

"Are you sure?" Chris quickly reached back in and shut the water off. His skin was red from the heat and Jeff was sure his was too.

"Well I've been better," Jeff admitted as they got up and grabbed two towels before exiting the bathroom. It was positively freezing now out in the bedroom but at least they could breathe.

"I'll second that," Chris agreed. He wrapped his towel around himself and shivered. "I'm thinking about finding that old man who's running this place and kicking his ass."

"Chris you can't kick his ass," Jeff said gently. "That's not right."

"Yeah well neither is what just happened," Chris pointed out. "We got scalded! He fucking has like a faulty hot water heater and it could have really hurt us! What if we hadn't gotten out as fast as we did?"

Jeff winced, not only because he thought about what Chris just said but also because his skin was kind of hurting now. "Look, I'm not saying we shouldn't complain. I just don't think violence against a hundred year old man is going to solve any problems."

Chris made a face and even though he clearly didn't want to, he slowly began to nod. "Fine. I won't kick his ass-unless he gives me lip. Then I'm punting his wrinkly geriatric ass out the window."

Jeff just rolled his eyes. "Fine. Whatever you say babe. Let's just get it over with so we can get the hell out of here."

…

"God damn it I hate this place," Mike muttered under his breath as he and Dolph made their way down the stairs. "I hate the rooms, I hate the beds, I hate everyone here-"

"Hey!" Dolph said defensively but Mike hardly paid attention to him. Between Connor coming to his room and annoying him for no reason and Adam and Randy's loud obnoxious sex, he was literally running on no sleep. He was going to bitch and moan whether anyone else wanted to hear it or not.

"You know what? I just want to get out of here. I'm in the land of the idiots and I just want to go home now."

"Wait, we're the idiots? If that's the case I'm actually kind of scared of what you are then."

Mike's eyes narrowed. Adam, Randy, Kelly, Eve and Bryan were all down in the lobby and of course it was Bryan who had mouthed off to him. Their on screen rivalry had gone off cameras as well and pretty much nobody took Mike's side because he was just that annoying.

"He's actually got a point," Adam pointed out. "If we're the idiots then you're like the village retard or something."

"Well nobody asked you," Mike snapped.

"I did," Randy said, his eyes narrowing at Mike. "Now why don't you say that again?"

Mike gulped instinctively. He was not about to fuck with Randy. Adam was one thing but Randy was something else entirely.

Eve pointed to their suitcases and shook her head. "If you're thinking about leaving don't bother. We can't even get out of this place."

Dolph gave her a look of complete disbelief. "What do you mean by that?"

"She means that there's a good seven and a half feet of snow sitting right behind that door," Adam clarified. "We already tried to get out and it didn't work. There's only about an inch of free space between the snow and the top of the door frame and not even Anorexic Barbie here could fit through that."

"Hey!" Kelly said. "I'm not anorexic!"

Mike shook his head and pulled out his phone. "Well fuck this shit then." He flipped open the phone and groaned when he saw that he had no service. "Oh are you kidding me?"

"Nobody's got any," Randy said. "And the landline is down too."

"What about the old guy?" Dolph asked. "Maybe he's got a radio or something-"

"We can't find him," Bryan said. "Matt and Jay are looking for him now but I think he vanished on us."

"Vanished?" Mike said incredulously. "To where?"

"Well if I knew I would have already said something."

Mike groaned and flopped down on the stairs like a small child throwing a tantrum. "So I'm stuck here even longer now with you guys?"

Adam rolled his eyes. "Believe me sweet cheeks, we aren't any happier about it than you are."

"But hey, look on the bright side," Kelly said in her typical airhead manner. "At least this can't get any worse."


	7. The Games Begin

"This place really gives me the fucking creeps," Jay said as he and Matt wandered through the hallways. They were trying to find the old man so they could ask him if he had a radio or something so they could maybe get some kind of help, but they couldn't find him anywhere. It was actually starting to freak Jay out a little bit. Had the old man left the hotel while they were all sleeping to avoid getting snowed in? Was he just hiding out somewhere that they hadn't checked yet? Or had he disappeared right into thin air?

"Actually I think this place is kind of neat," Matt said. "Hotels like this have all kinds of history, you know. If these walls could talk-"

"I'd run because that would be fucking creepy," Jay said. He definitely did not share Matt's interest in "cool" places like this. "Personally I can't wait to get out of here."

Matt shook his head. "Oh man, you too now? What is it with you people? You guys are acting like this place is haunted or some shit like that."

"Connor thinks this place is haunted," Jay said with a shrug. He didn't necessarily agree with that because he didn't believe in that stuff, but he did admit that the place was kind of creepy. It was just really old and shit and it didn't even look like it had been used as a hotel for years, which just added to the creep factor.

Matt rolled his eyes. "Oh come on. Connor thinks Santa Claus is Sandy Claws and he kills kids and steals their presents. Of course he thinks this place is haunted. I would have been more surprised if he didn't think something like that." He grabbed Jay's hand and swung it slightly. "Come on, this place is not that bad. We're not even going to be staying here that long anyway. As soon as we get dug out of here and the roads are clear, we'll be out and we'll more than likely never be back."

Jay nodded along, knowing that Matt was probably right. "What are we going to do until then though?" he asked.

Matt shrugged. "I say we do what we always do. We drink and be merry and get stupid." He opened one of the nearby doors and peeked inside of it. "Holy shit man, where is this guy? Did he pull a Houdini on us or something?"

"Maybe," Jay said. He opened the door across from the one Matt opened and stuck his head in the door. Immediately his eyes watered as the stench of decay hit his nostrils. "What the fuck?" he gasped out as he coughed and gagged wildly. Blindly he reached in and flipped on the light switch. At first he didn't see what was causing the smell but then he saw something with a blanket covering it on the bed and he got a very uneasy feeling in his stomach. "Matt?" he said, backing up so he could try to fight the morbid curiosity that was rising up inside of him.

"What?" Matt said. He walked over and peeked into the room, immediately gagged when he smelled the death too. "What the fuck dude? What died in here?"

"Who knows?" Jay coughed, almost throwing up the breakfast he had ate earlier. "I-Matt!" Matt was walking into the room with his shirt over his nose and mouth to help try to protect them from the stench. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Investigating." Matt grabbed the blanket with his free hand and yanked it off the bed, revealing the old man's lifeless body. One of his cold wrinkled hands was on his heart and his eyes were wide open as was his mouth, almost like he had been screaming at the time he had died. "Holy shit," Matt said under his breath. He looked back at Jay, who was staring at the body with wide eyes. "What the hell do we do now?"

"How the fuck should I know?" Jay asked. Given that the man had to have been at least ninety years old, finding him dead wasn't nearly as shocking as it should have been. "Just put the blanket back over him so I don't have to look at him anymore."

Matt quickly did that and then got out of the room and shut the door behind him. "Do you think he had a heart attack or something?"

Jay shook his head. "If he did how did the blanket get over his head. Most people don't fucking just stick a blanket over their head. It gets hard to breathe under one you know."

"Maybe he got cold…" Matt said weakly.

"That sounds completely stupid," Jay stated, leading the way to get the hell away from that room.

"Well do you have anything that sounds less stupid?" Matt asked.

"No…" Jay glanced back in the direction of the room. "What the hell are we going to do with that body? I mean we can't bury it or anything. There's like seven feet of snow outside."

"I know." Matt glanced back too. "We probably just have to leave it there and tell the others not to go near the room. And then when we get out of here we'll tell the police it's here and they can take care of it."

Jay nodded along. That sounded just fine to him. "What if they ask how he died?"

"I'll tell we don't know. We're only doctors in the bedroom. How are we supposed to know these kinds of things?"

Jay laughed and rested his head against Matt's shoulder. "Speaking of doctor, I think I might have an owie that needs attention."

Matt raised his eyebrows. "Oh yeah? Where's it at?"

"Somewhere in my pants…"

"Well then, that sounds like a very serious owie," Matt declared. He grabbed Jay and put him over his shoulder, giving him a firm slap on the ass as he did so. "It's a good thing Dr. Matt is here to save the day."

Jay nodded and gave Matt a return slap on the ass. "Oh yes. It's a very very good thing."

…

James took a giant swig from the bottle of vodka he was holding before looking back under the table where Connor was sitting at his feet. "Connor can you please come out of there?" he asked hopefully. When Connor had found out they couldn't leave the hotel yet, he had pitched an absolute fit, actually screaming at the top of his lungs until he had passed out. When he had woken back up he had went quiet, which actually scared James more than the screaming. A quiet Connor was never a good thing.

Connor shook his head and just hugged James's ankles.

"Come on Connor, knock it off," Mark said, fuming because he had tried to get a shot of whiskey but James and Glenn had taken it away from him. The two of them rarely agreed on much but one of the few things they did agree on was the fact that Mark was an absolute asshole on hard liquor. It had actually been a source of strain on Mark and James's relationship for over a decade and James wasn't looking to repeat any of it any time soon. "You're being ridiculous."

Connor whimpered and hung his head, which made Tiffany reach under and try to pull him on to her lap. "Connor sweetheart come here," she said gently.

"No," he finally refused. "It's not safe."

"Sure it is," she insisted. "It's perfectly safe." She gave the others a desperate look. "Tell him!"

"Connor it's safe, so quit freaking out," Cooper said, actually forcibly pulling Connor out from under the table.

"Uh…" Phil said hesitantly, about to say something else when Glenn silently shook his head at him.

"NO!" Connor shrieked, desperately trying to fight his way out of Cooper's grasp. "NO NO NO!"

"Connor stop!" Cooper said, wrapping his arms and legs around Connor's body so he couldn't go anywhere. "You're fine! We're not going to let anything happen to you so quit freaking out!"

"I don't think you're getting through to him," Tiffany said weakly as Connor burst into tears and just started to scream again.

"Here, give him to me," James said, trying to pry Connor out of Cooper's arm but Cooper wasn't having it.

"I've got him," Cooper snapped impatiently.

"You might not for long," Mark pointed out, pointing out the fact that Connor was still trying to get out of Cooper's grasp.

The absolutely murderous glare Cooper sent Mark's way made Glenn shake his head. "When will you learn just to shut up?" he asked out of pure curiosity. "Like seriously, every time your mouth around him, you just give him another reason to want to kill you."

Mark just grunted and glanced around the room and James's gaze followed along. They were down in the hotel restaurant and at a table not too far away from them were Mike, Dolph, Ted and Maryse, who were trying to act like they were not paying any attention to the way Connor was carrying on because they knew James would kill them if he saw them snickering. He knew that Connor was the source of much amusement to the locker room, some of them thinking he was adorable and others…well, not so much. James knew some thought Connor was retarded and it infuriated him because that was not the case. Connor just was stuck in a perpetual childlike state and also happened to be kind of psychotic; it was totally a forgivable flaw.

"How did we get stuck in here with the most annoying people on the roster?" Phil asked, nodding towards the people at the other table.

"Well just about all of them are annoying so it's not that hard to get stuck with them," Glenn said with a shrug.

Tiffany giggled softly. "I'm just glad Michelle and Layla left the room. If I had to hear them talk for another minute I was going to take a knife and join the killer's club here."

James smirked slightly but he didn't keep it for long. He really could not stand being around Michelle but it wasn't just because she was a super annoying bitch. The rumors about Mark and Michelle sleeping together had been floating around for forever and even though it had never been confirmed by anyone (Mark denied it, Michelle never said anything and nobody had ever caught them together), the fact that the rumors even existed pretty much made him very very uneasy. Mark had a huge history of being unfaithful so it wasn't like it would even be surprising. Hell Cooper was convinced that Mark was fucking around on James now. James tried to act like he didn't think anything of it but it really did bother him a lot more than he would ever verbally admit.

"Stop it!" Connor whined, snapping James out of his thoughts. His youngest son was staring at something by the bar that nobody else could see and actually talking to it. "Stop looking at him!"

"Connor what the hell?" Cooper said in confusion.

"Lucy's staring at Daddy!" Connor said, his whole body literally trembling uncontrollably. "Can't you see her? She's right there!"

"Connor there's nothing there!" Mark said. He got out of his seat and walked over to where Connor was looking, reaching out and grabbing at the thin air. "See?"

"She moved stupid!" Connor snapped, his eyes following wherever this Lucy person was going. "She's going bye bye…" He shook his head and gave James a worried look. "She kept smiling at you Daddy. I don't like her smile. It's bad."

James shook his head and kissed Connor's forehead reassuringly. "Well she's not going to do anything to me, okay? I won't let it happen." He noticed that Connor looked far from convinced and decided to just go ahead and attempt to make a big distraction to make him forget all about this shit. "So…who wants to whack Maryse with a stick and see if she's got implants or not?"

…

"Lay? What the hell are you doing?" Michelle asked as she eyed her best friend, who was sitting cross legged on the floor.

"I'm meditating Michelle," Layla replied, trying to give herself comfortable on the hard floor.

"Why?" Michelle was now very very confused. "You hate meditating. We had like an entire conversation about this two weeks ago, remember?"

"Yeah but then I was seeing my personal trainer the other day and he said that meditating would be good for me," Layla said, getting back up so she could put one of the pillows down on the floor so she could sit on it and actually be comfortable.

Michelle rolled her eyes. Layla had a huge crush on her trainer and it was actually starting to get very annoying because that was all she talked about. "If he told you to spread your legs so he could hump you right in the middle of the gym you would do it, wouldn't you?" she said under her breath.

Layla blinked and frowned. "What?"

"Nothing," Michelle said cheerfully. She grabbed a clean set of clothes from out of her bag. "I'm getting into the shower."

"Okay," Layla said. She closed her eyes and started to breathe in through her nose and out through her mouth. She could hear Michelle go into the bathroom and then she heard the water running but she tried not to let that distract her. Instead she focused on finding her center and clearing her mind of any and all thoughts so she could focus solely on relaxing. "Hummm," she said, trying to help herself out. "Hummm….hummm…"

Something tickled her leg and she quickly brushed it away so she could keep concentrating. But then something else tickled her back and it almost felt like…well it almost felt like legs…"

"The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout. Down came the rain and washed the spider out…"

Layla opened her eyes, gasping as she came face to face with a black eyed little girl sitting across from her. "Out came the sun and dried up all the rain and the itsy bitsy spider ate Layla's brains." The girl giggled, turning her lips into a sneer. "Oh wait, I'm sorry, you don't have brains do you, you miserable twit?"

"What the-Michelle!" Layla stood up and started backing up towards the bathroom door. "MICHELLE!"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the little girl said lazily. "You might make them angry."

Layla tried to ask who "they" were but she didn't get a chance to get the words out. She felt them crawling all over her and when she glanced down at herself, she saw that "they" were hundreds of spiders literally crawling up her body. "MICHELLE!" she screamed at the top of her lungs while jumping around and desperately trying to get the spiders off of her. "MICHELLE HELP ME! HELP ME PLEASE HELP ME!" She was absolutely TERRIFIED of spiders and she started crying so hard that she began to hyperventilate. "OH MY GOD GET THEM OFF ME! GET THEM OFF ME PLEASE GET THEM OFF ME!"

Lucy just watched in amusement as the spiders made their way up Layla's body, entering through her ears and nose to get into her brain and going into her mouth so they could lodge themselves in her throat and choke her. "Mary come watch!" she said, giggling as Layla dropped down to her knees and began to gag wildly. "Come watch come watch!" She giggled as Layla's now convulsing body dropped the rest of the way to the floor. "The games have begun." She heard Mary's frightened whimper and she giggled while rocking side to side and resuming her singing.


	8. Chopped

Michelle turned off the water and wrung her hair out as much as she could before grabbing her towel and drying herself off with it. The shower had made a loud whining noise the entire time she had been in it so it had been pretty much impossible for her to hear anything other than that. At one point she could have sworn she had heard Layla yelling but had blown it off completely. She figured her friend had just gotten a cramp or something from sitting cross legged on the floor. Layla did have the tendency to get way overdramatic at times and she often found it best just to ignore her when she got like that. No good ever really came from indulging her dramatics.

Michelle wrapped the towel around her body and stepped out of the shower. The steam was so thick and heavy in the room that even when she wiped the fog off the mirror, it reformed in the matter of seconds. "Mother fucker," she said under her breath. She had been wanting to figure out the best way to get her hair before she got dressed. She wasn't one who put a whole bunch of time and effort into her appearance because she knew it wasn't needed; she looked better than everyone without any effort at all. But still, she wasn't about to get totally lazy, especially because she was trying very subtlety (because any overt signals would get her slaughtered) to get Mark's attention. Vince himself believed she had some sort of ongoing relationship with Taker and she had been milking that to her full advantage (she didn't get where she was now just on talent) but getting to Mark beyond the very few times they had actually hooked up was her main goal. Backstage life in the WWE was all about politics and she intended to be at the top of the heap, one way or another.

"Hey Lay, do you think I should curl my hair or leave it straight?" she asked as she opened the bathroom door to let the steam clear out. "Because-" The rest of what she was about to say died on her lips as the sight of her best friend lying dead on the floor, her eyes and mouth opened in fear while spiders crawled in and out of her. There was a little girl with white eyes cradling Layla's head on her lap as she cried and trembled uncontrollably.

"I'm sorry," the little girl whimpered. "I'm sorry I'm sorry…"

Michelle took a step back, her mouth opening wordlessly for a moment before she let out a very loud and horrified scream."

…

Evan leaned back in his chair as John dealt out the cards, hoping this game of poker would distract him from how cooped up he was feeling. Matt and Jay had informed them all that the old man that had greeted them the night before had died, seemingly from a heart attack. And while that seemed to be perfectly natural and all that because the guy had seemed to be almost a hundred years old to begin with, it still was bothering Evan. Maybe it was just the fact that they were all cooped up in the same building as the body without a way out. He wasn't really good at dealing with death. He never had been. Even if he didn't know the person that well, it bothered him when people died. Some accused him of being overly sensitive but he couldn't help it. That was just the way he was.

"The game is five card stud," John informed them all. He was sitting next to Ron, who was on one side of Evan. Eve was on Evan's other side and Kelly, Kofi and Cody were the ones near her. "And-"

"Five card stud?" Kelly said in confusion. "I thought we were playing Go Fish."

Cody eyed her like she was a complete idiot. He hadn't originally been invited to play with them but Eve and Kelly had felt bad for him because he was still all heartbroken over the whole Ted thing and they were trying to make him feel wanted. Evan wasn't exactly completely on board with the idea because he wasn't sure how much Cody could ever be trusted but he hadn't said a word against it. "Why would you think we were playing that?" Cody asked incredulously. "That is like the stupidest game ever."

"No it's not!" Kelly said defensively. "It's fun!" She looked at Eve for support. "Tell him."

"It's fun," Eve said with a dismissive wave of her hand. She was too busy studying the hand she had been given to even give a shit about what they were all talking about.

Kelly gave Cody a triumphant look and the dashing one only could roll his eyes. Kofi looked back and forth between them, just shaking his head at them. "Personally I think Old Maid is like the stupidest card game ever."

"Isn't that just because you always lose at that game?" Ron asked with a snicker.

"Wait, they have Old Maid in Africa?" Kelly asked, turning her full attention to Kofi. "Is it different from American Old Maid? Because I think it would have like witch doctors on the card-"

"Sweetheart just stop," Evan said as John and Cody snorted loudly. "It's quiet time okay?" Kelly had the really bad tendency to speak without thinking so a lot of the time she came across as a complete moron.

Kofi just shook his head at Kelly before turning his attention back to Ron. "Don't even talk to me about losing card games. I remember the time you cried like a little bitch when I beat you in blackjack ten times in a row-"

"I did NOT cry like a bitch!"

"Yeah," John said, wrapping his arms protectively around his boyfriend while glaring at Kofi. "And I was there with you that night you jackass. You didn't beat him ten times in a row. It was more like…nine."

Cody snickered at that. This was actually the most relaxed he had been since the whole Ted/Maryse drama started. "Oh yes, because that's such a big difference."

"It is," John insisted. "Because that's one less time than-" A loud scream from down the hall interrupted him and they all glanced towards the door worriedly. "What the fuck was that?"

Evan could only shake his head. A horrible feeling had entered the pit of his stomach and he didn't want to know what that screaming was about. His instincts told him that he was better off not knowing and he really really just wanted to go with them at the moment.

The scream sounded again and everyone but him and Kelly got up to their feet and left the room so they could go find out what it was. "Why didn't you go?" Kelly asked.

"I don't know," Evan lied, not wanting to seem like a complete coward. "Why didn't you go?"

"I'm scared," she confessed. She got up and hesitantly reached out for his hand. "Come with me?"

Evan's first instinct was to say no because he didn't think that was the smartest idea in the world. But the way she was looking at him got to him and after a very long hesitation he found himself reluctantly getting up to his feet so he could take her hand and walk out of the room with her. The screaming was still going on only now it wasn't just one person doing it. There were others joining it and that did nothing to make Evan feel better. "What's going on?" he asked, realizing one of two things as he did so. One was that he and Kelly were the last ones to the party and the other was that it was Michelle who was doing most of the screaming. "What happened?"

"Michelle killed Layla," Maryse said. She was hugging Ted's arm while glaring at Michelle, who was clinging to Dolph for dear life.

"I DID NOT!" Michelle screamed, looking like she wanted to come over and rip Maryse's head off by her hair extensions. "That fucking little girl in there did it!"

"That little girl is smaller than a munchkin. She couldn't do anything-"

"Let's not go that far honey," Ted said, planting a kiss on the side of her head. "That little girl in there is one creepy little bitch. Who knows what she's capable of doing?"

Evan was even more confused than before. "What little girl?" he asked, putting his arm around Kelly's waist as she hugged him. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Come up here pipsqueak and we'll show you," Adam replied. He grabbed Evan's arm while Randy grabbed Kelly and they pulled the both of them up to the front of the crowd so they could see into the room. Kelly gasped and put her hand over her mouth as her eyes landed on Layla's body but Evan tried not to even look at her. Instead he tried to keep his eyes on the little girl, who was staring at Mark, Glenn and the Lawsons, who had all surrounded her.

"I TOLD you these girls were real," Connor said as he stayed behind Cooper. "That's Mary Daddy. She's the one that was okay. She's not the bad one. Lucy is the bad one."

James nodded and reached over so he could smooth down Connor hair. "Yeah well if she killed Layla-"

"I didn't," Mary said, shaking her head and hugging Layla's body even more tightly. She seemed to be absolutely terrified of Mark and Glenn, who were both examining her very very carefully. "I didn't do it. Lucy did it."

"Why?" Mark asked, his eyes not leaving Mary for an instant.

Mary looked down and shook her head. "I'm not supposed to tell," she whispered. "Lucy will get mad if I do."

"Yeah well I'll get mad if you don't," Mark said sharply. "So why don't we try this again? Why would Lucy do this?"

Mary whimpered and closed her eyes, refusing to answer that question. Mark scowled, definitely getting impatient but Glenn put his hand on his shoulder and squeezed it hard. "Stop," the younger brother of destruction ordered.

"Why?" Mark asked. "I-" He stopped as the lights began to flicker. "What the-"

"Something's here," Glenn grunted.

Evan gulped as Mark nodded along. He didn't know what the fuck this was all about but he knew that he didn't like it. That much was for sure.

"Yeah and I think it's in her stomach," James said, grabbing Connor and Cooper and taking a big step away from Layla. Evan could see something moving inside of her stomach and he gasped, quickly placing himself and Kelly behind Adam and Randy for safety purposes.

"What the fuck?" Cooper said uneasily. "Dad what is going on?"

James could only shake his head. "Marky? Do you-"

"Everyone get away," Mark said, practically shoving James towards the door. "I want everyone away right now."

"Marky do you know-"

"No I don't Lawson! I don't fucking-"

Layla's stomach burst open and out came hundreds upon hundreds of spiders. Almost everyone began to scream at the same time and Evan found himself right in the middle of a mass panic situation. He blindly began to run, keeping a tight grip on Kelly as he went into the first room he could get into. Kofi, Adam and Randy went in with him and Randy slammed the door shut so the spiders couldn't get in. Adam of course, was quick to point out a small problem with that.

"They can get under it Randy!" he said, pointing to the crack between the bottom of the door and the floor. "The mother fucking things can get under-"

"Like hell they will!" Randy snapped. He ripped the covers off the bed and pressed them up against the crack in order to block the spiders' way in.

"Oh my God did you see that?" Kelly asked hysterically. Tears were streaming down her face and she was clinging to Evan so hard that he thought she was going to break some of his ribs. "Did you see it? Oh my God, that was horrible!"

"Fucking right it was," Kofi agreed. He walked over to the window and opened it. "And I'm not staying for more. That bullshit was all I needed to see."

"Where are you going to go though?" Evan asked. "It's freezing out there and there's all that snow and you don't even know where we are!"

"Dude, do you think I fucking care?" Kofi asked. "Who the fuck is going to stay here right now after that bullshit? I'm sure not!"

"He's got a point," Adam said as Kofi began to climb out the window. "We should just get the hell out of here."

Evan wasn't inclined to disagree. He wanted the hell out of there too. But as Kofi was trying to figure out the best way to get out, he saw something glint in the window that made him uneasy once again. "Kofi-"

The window slammed shut on its own accord and Kelly screamed as Kofi was literally chopped right in half by a blade that hadn't been there just a couple minutes ago. Evan felt a large amount of bile rise up in his throat as half of Kofi fell out the window into the snow and half of him fell back into the room, his blood staining the floor.

"JESUS CHRIST!" Adam shouted while Randy's jaw dropped and Kelly refused to stop screaming. Evan's mouth was open and he was trying to join Kelly in the screaming but his voice refused to work for him. He just made a small squeaking noise before his legs crumpled and he fainted on the spot, smacking his head against the hard floor as he fell.


	9. To Panic or Not to Panic

"Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck," Jeff whimpered as he clung to Chris for dear life. They, Matt and Jay and were all hiding together in one of the nearby rooms and they could all hear Evan, Kelly and Adam screaming at the top of their lungs. The screaming was doing absolutely nothing to help the situation and Matt was the only one among them that had kept any resemblance of his cool.

"Do you think the spiders are getting them too?" Jay asked. He was standing on the table and holding a lamp like it was a baseball bat.

"They could be," Chris said, eyeing the door like the spiders were going to come bursting through it at any moment. "Shit, did you see the way they just came busting out of Layla?"

"Of course I did! I was there!" Jay shook his head and tightened his grip on the lamp. "Can you just imagine what they did to her? What they could do to us?"

Jeff whimpered and buried his face against Chris. He could imagine what the spiders had done very well and he would like to not do it anymore. Normally he never even flinched at the sight of spiders but this incident in itself made him absolutely terrified of them. He had never seen anything like that before and he never ever wanted to see anything like it before. He hadn't even thought anything like that could ever be possible. _Of all the times to be wrong…_

"Would you guys chill for three seconds?" Matt snapped, glaring back at all of them. "You are not helping at all!"

"Well what the fuck else are we supposed to do?" Jay asked while Chris hugged Jeff. "Huh? Tell me oh wise one. What are we supposed to do?"

"Not freak out-"

"Not freak out? Spiders just exploded out of Layla's body! This is the perfect time to panic!"

Matt took several deep breaths in order to keep himself from snapping at his boyfriend. Even though Jay's panicking wasn't doing any good, snapping at him and starting an argument would be just as bad at this point. "Jason, sweetheart, I know panicking seems like the thing to do right now because I want to do it too. But panicking now isn't going to do anything but make things worse. So can you possibly try to stay calm? Just for me?"

Jay gulped and glanced at Chris and Jeff, who hardly cared what path he chose at the moment. They were more than willing to let Matt take charge of the situation and follow his lead and they were also more than willing to follow Jay into a blind panic. "Okay," he said slowly, nodding to Matt and showing that he was going to try to calm down. "But if there are more spiders I make no promises to how I'll react."

Matt nodded. "Fine." He knew that was going to be the best answer he was going to get out of Jay at the moment so he wasn't going to push it.

"So if we're not panicking then what the hell are we going to do then?" Chris asked.

"Well I don't know about you, but I suggest we leave," Matt replied. "Shocking I know, but given the circumstances…" He said more than that but Jeff didn't hear him. He was staring out the window, his mind still freaking out even though he appeared to be calm on the outside. He wanted to run, just run like the fucking wind and never look back. His legs were refusing to work for him no matter how much his brain screamed at them to work.

"Jeff?" Chris said gently, cupping his face in his hands and kissing him to get his attention. "Baby?"

Jeff blinked and shook his head. "I'm fine," he lied. His stomach was churning violently in his stomach and he almost threw up a little bit in his mouth but he forced it back down before that could happen.

"Yeah and I'm the queen of England," Chris shot back. He tightened his grip on Jeff and looked at Matt. "Beam us out of here Scotty."

Matt nodded and waited for Jay to jump off the table and grab his arm before cautiously opening the door and peering out of it. "No spiders…where the hell did they go?"

"Who the hell cares?" Jay asked. "If they're not there let's go! Let's go let's go let's go!"

"Okay okay!" Matt said quickly. "Calm down!" He led them out of the room, pretty much letting Jay jump on his back just in case any spiders decided to sneak up on them. Chris and Jeff followed close behind them, Chris almost dragging Jeff along because his legs were practically useless on him. "Come on baby, keep it together for me," Chris pleased, covering Jeff with reassuring kisses. "Come on, just hold it together. We'll be out of here before you know it. You just gotta keep going."

Jeff nodded and forced himself to walk faster, his heart pounding inside his chest harder and harder as they got closer and closer to the front door. In the back of his mind he was wondering if they should try to get the others to come with them but he squashed that thought as fast as he possibly could. It wasn't anything personal, but he was more concerned about himself, Chris, Matt and Jay all getting out over everyone else. The others were all capable human beings. They could escape on their own without being rescued (hopefully anyway).

"Almost there," Matt said under his breath as they were halfway down the stairs. "Almost there almost there…" He stopped suddenly and almost fell face first on the ground when Chris and Jeff collided with him. "Oh fuck."

"What?" Chris asked sharply. "Don't say oh fuck. I don't like that saying. That's a bad bad saying."

"Well it's fitting," Matt replied, panic starting to rise in his voice as Jay stared up ahead with wide eyes and an open mouth. "Because the front door is gone."

"What?" Jeff yelled. He forced his legs to work so he could move away from Chris and make his way further down the stairs. Much to his horror, there was no front door anymore. There was just a wall where it used to be and no matter how hard he stared at it, it refused to change back. "No no no…" He ran the rest of the way down the stairs and began to pound on the wall as hard as he could. "God damn it let me out!" he shouted. "Let me out let me let me out!" He started pounding on the wall even harder, screaming in frustration when he wasn't let out.

"Jeff I don't think that's going to do anything baby," Chris said with a shake of his head.

"Of course it's not," Jay snapped. "He's not doing it right." He let go of Matt and shoved Jeff out of the way. "Let me handle this." He began ramming his shoulder against the door, just like he would do if he was trying to burst through a door. But since there was no door, he just ended up hurting himself instead. "Ow!"

"Maybe we should just go out a window instead," Matt suggested.

"NO!"

Jeff looked up the staircase and saw Randy, Adam, Evan and Kelly all running down the stairs. "What do you mean no?" he asked.

"Yeah!" Jay said. "And why are you still alive? I heard you all screaming and thought you got offed by the spiders!"

"Dude, forget the fucking spiders!" Adam snapped. "The windows are fucking possessed!"

Chris blinked, not quite believing what he had heard. "What?" he said in disbelief. "What do you mean possessed?"

"Kofi tried to escape through the window and the window shut on its own and chopped him in half," Randy explained quickly. "That's what the fuck we mean."

"Are…are you serious?" Matt stammered out in shock.

Kelly's face twisted into something quite ugly and she suddenly launched herself at Matt so she could grab his shirt and begin shaking him. "WHY THE FUCK WOULD WE BE KIDDING ABOUT THAT YOU SON OF A BITCH?"

Matt just stood there, too stunned to respond. Kelly promptly burst into tears and Evan quickly pulled her into a hug and rocked her back and forth. "We have to get out of here," he said softly. "We gotta get out now."

"I agree but there's no door!" Jay reminded everyone, making large dramatic hand motions where the door used to be. "See? No door! And if the windows are possessed like you say they are-"

"We're fucked," Jeff concluded. He sank down to the ground and rubbed his face, trying to wrap his head around the news of Kofi's death and the even worse reality of their situation. Kofi had been a cool dude and Jeff felt pain in his loss, even though the two of them hadn't been that close. And the fact that he had been killed trying to escape from this place just made it that much worse. If he died trying to escape, what did that mean for the rest of them? Were they all going to die too? Why was this happening to them? What had they done to deserve this shit?"

"What the hell do we do?" Evan asked, hesitantly breaking the very horrible silence that had fallen over the group.

"My vote is we find Mark," Matt said because nobody else attempted to answer. "If anyone can get us out of this, its him. And even if he can't, I would rather be around him in case more shit goes down."

Adam nodded along. "I hate to do this but I agree with Matt. If we're hiding behind anyone, we should behind him. He can work the mojo bullshit while James scares the scary stuff away. I mean, who the fuck would try to mess with him?"

…

"Well…this is a one unsatisfactory bitch of a situation," James commented as he stared at Layla's body. After the spiders had all mysteriously disappeared, Mark and Glenn had decided to go back and examine Layla's body and look for the little Mary girl that had been there. Mark had tried to get James to stay behind in another room but James hadn't been hearing that. He knew from watching hundreds of horror movies over the years that splitting up was the worst thing a person could do in this situation so he wasn't about to play that game. They were all sticking together and that was the end of the discussion.

"I think that's kind of understating it," Phil said as he stayed as close to Glenn as he could. He wanted to be anywhere else but in that room, but where Glenn went he followed. He was a good puppy like that. "Look at this! Have you fucking ever seen anything like this before?"

"Well I eviscerate people all the time so yeah I have," James replied. "Although there's usually no spiders inside the bodies waiting to jump out at me."

"Yeah really," Cooper agreed. He stuck a cigarette in his mouth and lit it up, which made James narrow his eyes at him. "What?" he said innocently. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"What have I told you about smoking?" James said. He snatched the cigarette out of Cooper's mouth and stomped on it. "I told you I didn't want you doing that shit."

"Oh come on Dad! I'm twenty fucking eight years old. I can smoke if I want."

"Wanna bet?"

"Can you two just shut up for two seconds?" Mark asked impatiently. "In case you haven't noticed, now is not exactly the time to be doing this bullshit argument you've done a thousand times before. Lawson, if the boy wants to get lung cancer and die, let him. Just let him do it quietly so I can figure out where the fuck that girl went."

"Fuck you dick licker," Cooper snapped, kicking Mark in the hips and making him groan in pain.

"Oh yes, that's very mature," Glenn said sarcastically. "Yes we're being haunted by shit but lets take the time to stop and argue like children. You know, because that's the SMART thing to do." He rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Fucking idiots."

James flipped Glenn off but didn't verbally disagree with him because he knew he was right (even though he would never ever admit that). "So what exactly are we dealing with here Mark Mark?" he asked. "Think the ghost girls had anything to do with the spiders in Tweedle's tummy?"

Mark shook his head. "I can't say for sure. It's a possibility but it could be something else entirely."

"Well fuck, who cares what it is?" Cooper said impatiently. "Let's just fucking ditch this place. I'm sick of this bullshit."

"Lucy don't want us to leave though," Connor reminded him fearfully. "She told me we were going to die here and she meant it."

Cooper shook his head. "Fuck that bitch. I'll fucking walk out of here alive and laugh in her face. We'll see how she likes that."

James grinned and ruffled Cooper's hair affectionately. "That's the spirit my boy." He always believed all the boogeymen people believed in only had their power because the people gave them their power. If nobody believed in the shit, the power would be no more. It was so simple he figured a caveman could get it but apparently that wasn't the case.

Mark shook his head at them and stood back up. "We have to find that Mary girl. If she's not doing this then she might know where that Lucy bitch is."

"I don't wanna find Lucy," Connor whimpered. He grabbed on to James and buried his face into his shirt. "I don't like her. She-"

"Connor. Oh Connor. Come play with me Connor. Forever and ever and ever."

A look of sheer terror spread across Connor's face and he just about fainted on the spot. "Connor," the little girl called out again. "Why won't you come out and play with me? This is rude you know. Very very rude."

"Son of a bitch," James growled. He handed Connor off to Cooper and left the room, with Mark and Glenn right on his heels (Phil and Cooper both poked their heads out the door but didn't come all the way out).

"Oh hello," Lucy said, trying to make herself sound as cute and innocent as possible. "Can you get Connor to come play with me. I'm really lonely and could use a friend."

"How about I don't?" James countered. "And how about you stay the fuck away from my son? How does that sound?"

"Lawson…" Mark said uneasily, grabbing onto James's shoulder and attempting to pull him back as Lucy grinned. Her pure black eyes were fixed only on James but he refused to flinch. He was about to be intimidated, no matter what this little bitch was.

Lucy pouted her lips and shook her head. "But Connor is so much fun to play with. I love to hear him scream-"

James growled and took a couple of steps towards her when she disappeared right before his eyes. Seconds later she reappeared on James's back, her mouth by his ear and a wire hanger in her hands, which she tried to press right up against his jugular. The familiar feel of the sharp, cold metal against his flesh made him freeze right on the spot. Flashes of Caroline doing this were going through his head and they rooted his feet to the spot and made his heart skip a beat against his will.

"I could always just play with you," Lucy whispered. She giggled and attempted to slash his throat open when Mark grabbed her by the hair and violently yanked her off James. She disappeared right in his hands before he could do anything else and the sound of her laughing at them echoed through the halls, completely, totally and quite gleefully mocking them all.


	10. Doctor Doctor Give Me the News

Eve hugged herself as Mark did a head count and made sure everyone was in the lobby. Layla and Kofi were dead, the door was gone, the windows were obviously not an option of escape…yeah, she was panicking big time. She was trying to keep her composure though, at least on the outside. The way she figured it, there were enough people openly freaking out and making it harder to deal with the situation than it already was. So she stayed silent and watched what was going on around her. Mark and Glenn were taking charge of the situation, which would have been great if they didn't look on the edge of a freakout themselves. James was standing nearby, a very dark look on his face. Something had obviously happened to him but he wasn't in any hurry to share what it was. Cooper and Tiffany were still trying to calm Connor down (it wasn't working), Melina and Evan were trying to calm Kelly down (she was still more hysterical than Connor) and Mike was being a total idiot and throwing peanuts and Bryan's head, except he kept missing and was hitting Eve instead.

"Oh my God, would you quit?" she finally snapped. She couldn't take it anymore. If he didn't knock it off she was going to get up and kick his ass so hard that he would never ever forget it.

Mike shook his head. "Just move and we won't have a problem. Your big head is blocking my target."

Her eyes narrowed dangerously and Bryan shook his head in disbelief. "You're going to get it SO bad."

"Oh really? What the hell is she going to-OW!" His head rocked to the side as Eve literally smacked the taste out of his mouth. He tried to get up to be all threatening and shit but Beth grabbed him by the back of the neck and forced him to stay seated.

"You knock it off," the Glamazon growled. "You hear me? You knock it off before I END you!"

"Okay," Mike whimpered, his face contorting and showing just how much pain he was really in. "I'll be good, I promise."

Beth glared at him a little bit and squeezed his neck just a little bit more before letting him go. Eve still wanted to hit him again but Ron grabbed her by the arm and gently pulled her back. "Come on Baby Girl, calm down," he said gently. "Come here and calm down. You can beat him up later, I promise."

Eve didn't want to beat him up later; she wanted to beat him up right then and there. But despite her need for more violence, she allowed Ron to sit her back down in her spot. Bryan grinned slightly and wrapped his arm around her so he could give her a reassuring squeeze.

"Don't worry," he said with a wise nod. "I think he'll probably die anyway so we won't have to worry about him much longer."

"EXCUSE ME?" Mike tried to get up again but Beth once again held him back.

"Settle down Vickie," Bryan said cheekily, making Natalya roll her eyes at him.

"Did you really have to get him started?" she asked in exasperation.

"…Do you really want me to answer that?" was Bryan's response.

"Ugh!" Maryse groaned. She followed that up with something in French but nobody could understand her anyway so they just all ignored her.

"Can we like please come up with a plan?" Matt asked, trying to steer them back on track. "I would like to get out of here before anyone else winds up dead." He looked at Mark, who shook his head because he was getting irritated with everyone just looking at him and expecting him to magically know what to do.

"I'm _trying_ to come up with a plan," he said irritably. "What do you think Glenn and I are trying to do? We don't even know what we're dealing with-"

"Who cares what we're dealing with?" Ted asked as Maryse nodded in agreement. "Let's just kill it!"

"But if they're ghosts, they're already dead," Cody hesitantly pointed out. "So they can't die again…" He winced at the look Ted and Maryse gave him. "Never mind. Just forget it. Let's kill them."

"No no no, you were right the first time," Melina said, shooting the couple a dirty look. "Ghosts are dead so they can't die again."

"This shit ain't as simple as a mere fucking haunting," Glenn said, shaking his head as all eyes went to him. "It don't feel like it anyway."

"So what is it then?" John asked impatiently. "Is it a poltergeist or something? Because I've seen all three movies and I don't want to deal with that shit."

Glenn smirked at that. "Believe me, if it is a poltergeist, the movies won't even compare to how bad its going to get before its all said and done."

"Oh yes, let's tell everyone that," Cooper said sarcastically when everyone else's faces drained of color. "Because THAT is what they needed to hear."

"Hey, I'm just giving them fair warning," Glenn said with a shrug. "If they can't handle it it's not my fault."

Eve winced and hugged herself again. It was getting harder and harder to contain her sheer panic. "I wanna go home," she whispered, talking more to herself than to anyone else. "I wanna go home I wanna go home…"

Mark ran his hand through his hair and waved his hands, motioning for everyone to stop the idle chatter they had started after Glenn had sent them into a tizzy. "Look, I think I've got a plan-"

As if whatever the fuck they were dealing with was waiting for that cue, the lights went out before he could finish that sentence. Michelle, Kelly and Maryse all screamed and Eve immediately grabbed on to Bryan, who let out a long sigh. "Well shit. You were saying Mark?"

"Oh fuck me," Mark groaned. He sounded beyond frustrated now. "You think you're cute you little bitch? Huh!"

There was a moment of silence and then they all heard the sound of a child giggling. "Uh…I think that means yes she does," Glenn told him.

Mark growled and for a moment Eve had hope, because anything that got on Mark's bad side was guaranteed to die. The only thing more scary than an angry Mark was an angry Lawson (and an angry Glenn was tied with his brother). But her hope didn't last very long at all because suddenly a pair of hands grabbed her by the hair and yanked over the back of the couch. She screamed and reached up so she could dig her nails into the hands. That did nothing to make whatever it was release her. In fact, it just started pulling her harder, dragging her all across the floor while she kicked her feet and tried to get away. "HELP ME!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "SOMEBODY HELP ME!"

…

"Eve!" Even though Bryan couldn't see a thing, he jumped over the back of the couch and started following the sound of her screams so he could rescue her from whatever it was that had dragged her away from him.

"What the fuck is going on?" James asked.

"Eve!" Kelly shrieked. "Eve what's the matter?"

"HELP ME!" Eve screamed again, her voice croaking slightly because of how loud she was doing it. "HELP ME PLEASE!"

Bryan stumbled because he was running so fast while blind but he managed to keep his balance and grab a hold of her ankles, dragging his feet and pulling back so he could yank her away from whatever had it. The thing refused to let go though and it actually started dragging him along too. "Let her go you fucker!" he shouted, pulling back even harder. The tug of war was going to result in her hair getting yanked out if something didn't give soon but he figured she would prefer that over anything else that could happen to her.

"Bryan where are you?" Beth yelled out. "Where is she?"

"We're-" Something hit him in the chest, knocking the air out of his lungs and sending him crashing to the ground. As he laid there in a daze, the lights came back on and the sound of growling caught his attention. "Oh my God!" Tiffany exclaimed, which didn't make him feel good at all. _What the fuck is going on now?_

"Nice doggies," Jeff said, trying to play dog whisperer to the pack of rabid pitbulls that were now standing in the room with them. "Nice doggies…you don't want to hurt us now do you? No you don'. We're nice people."

The dogs didn't give a shit if they were nice. They were too busy growling and snarling and Bryan noticed the way they were focusing more on Dolph because he was backing away in fear. _No you idiot, don't move…don't move don't move…_

"Dolph don't," Phil said, vocalizing what Bryan couldn't. "Just stop-"

The lead dog snarled and Dolph screamed and tried to run. The animals all rushed him at once, jumping over everyone in their path and landing on the Intercontinental champion, sending him crashing to the ground. Before anyone could make a move to help him, they began ripping him to shreds, literally ripping out his throat and other chunks of his flesh and happily lapping up the blood before disappearing right before their eyes. Everyone just stood there in shock, staring at Dolph's lifeless body in shock. Bryan felt quite sick staring at it but he couldn't tear his eyes away. It was like a train wreck in that way.

"Oh fuck me…" James went to say more but the sound of Eve screaming caught their attention and it forced Bryan to get up to his feet and start following the sound of it again. He didn't stop to see if anyone was following him; he was going to find her whether anyone helped him or not. "Eve! Eve! Where the fuck are you?"

…

"Let me go!" Eve shrieked as she struggled to get off the table she had been strapped to. She hadn't seen what grabbed her in the first place and right now she really didn't care. What she cared about was the black eyed little girl, who was dressed like a doctor and giving her a very very evil smile. "Let me go! You little bitch let me go!"

"Now that's not anyway to address your doctor-"

"YOU'RE NOT MY DOCTOR!"

"YES I am! I'm Dr. Lucy now deal with it!" She finished putting on her rubber gloves and then put on a surgical mask. "You ready Nurse Mary?"

Mary sat in the corner, crying quietly and shaking her head. "Lucy stop! This isn't fun-"

"To you it isn't. To me though…this is fucking hysterical." Lucy giggled and grabbed a knife before climbing up on a table. She was only about four feet tall but from Eve's current position, she might as well have been King Kong. "Now…you my patient are a very very sick girl. And-hey hey hey!" She backhanded Eve across the face for still screaming and struggling to get free. "Stop that!"

"Fuck you!" Eve screeched, fighting with every ounce of strength she had left. "Fuck you let me go!"

"Now see, this is my problem with you humans," Lucy said with a shake of her head. "None of you know how to say please." She drove the knife down into Eve's chest and ripped it downwards, splitting her chest open and laughing gleefully while she did so. Eve's body convulsed and the last thing she saw before she died was Lucy sticking her hand into her chest and ripping out her still beating heart.


	11. Dissention in the Ranks

A very very shocked and frightened silence was reigning supreme in the room. Nobody could move or utter a single sound for the longest time. When the silence was finally broken, it shouldn't have been a surprise that it was James who chose to do it. His silence wasn't from shock and horror. After nearly forty years of killing people, the sight of a horribly mangled body did nothing for him. Add in the fact that he didn't actually give a shit about Dolph to begin with and he really really did not care that he just got killed right in front of them. The only thing that he cared about was getting himself, Mark and his boys the fuck out of there. That was it.

"So…at least the doggies are probably full now."

Mark groaned and shook his head. "Lawson…was that necessary?"

"What?" James said innocently. "What did I say?" He looked to Cooper for help but Cooper was too busy tending to Connor, who was sitting on the floor with his knees pulled up to his chest, rocking back and forth while crying softly.

"It's going to be okay," Cooper said quietly. He had his arms wrapped around his younger brother in a protective manner and he was rubbing his back to try and help with the calming effect. "It's going to be okay. We're going to get out of here and its going to be okay."

"No it won't," Connor sniffled. "We're all going to die. Lucy don't want us to get away-"

"You know…you know an awful lot about this little Lucy bitch," Ted said, forcing himself to look away from Dolph's body so he could glare at Connor. "How do we know you're not in cahoots with her?"

Connor blinked in confusion as everyone else winced as the looks Ted was getting from James and Cooper. "What?"

"Teddy don't," Cody pleaded. He reached out to touch Ted's leg but Maryse slapped his hand.

"Nuh uh! No touchies! He is MINE!" She hugged Ted's neck and gave him a big kiss to prove her point.

"Well come on, you saw her first, you-"

"He's not smart enough to be in cahoots with anyone," Michelle said irritably. "Lucy wouldn't waste her time with someone who has the intelligence of a five year old."

James growled and balled up his fists. "You just shut up," he ordered. He took a step towards her and Mark quickly grabbed him by the back of the shirt to keep him from going at her. "You just shut the fuck up about my boy."

"Hey, I didn't say anything everyone here didn't already know," Michelle replied in her own defense. "He's a grown man who's a complete child."

"And however true that may be, you gotta remember he don't like you anyway," Phil said hesitantly, hiding behind Glenn just in case James took something the wrong way. James was very VERY sensitive whenever Connor's intelligence was questioned. They all knew that something was really wrong with Connor (Phil was willing to place money on the boy being mentally retarded purely based off the fact that he was an incest baby and that never ended well) but saying it in front of James was suicide. James liked to believe that there was nothing wrong with Connor at all and his abnormal behavior was totally natural. He was in deep deep denial and if you made it known you did not share his denial, you were fucked. "So uh…maybe you should shut up. He's not afraid to kill you."

"Fucking right I'm not," James growled. He was trying to twist out of Mark's grasp so he could get his hands on Michelle. She always annoyed him so fucking bad; they would all be better off if he just killed her and got it over with.

"Hey! Come on, fucking knock it off!" Matt ordered, shaking his head in disbelief. "We've got serious fucking problems here and don't have time for this! We have four people we know are dead and one missing-"

"Oh sweetheart, Eve's dead," Mike said with a shake of his head. "There's no way she's still alive."

"How do you know?" Evan asked angrily. Mike's words had made Kelly burst into a whole new set of hysterics which was not a good thing. She was going to make herself pass out at the rate she was going.

"Oh come on! Let's look at what's happening here! Everyone just keeps dying horribly and she gets dragged off in the dark? That spells death!"

John glared at his ex-boyfriend and shook his head. "Mike shut up before I make you shut up." There was no denying that Mike had a very very good point. Layla, Kofi, Dolph and the caretaker were all dead; the odds of Eve meeting that fate were too good to be comforting.

"We gotta find her," Bryan said suddenly. He was rubbing his chest very very gingerly, still sore from whatever had hit him earlier.

Mike threw up his hands. "Hey dumbass, let me give you two words: lost cause. Okay? Can your nerdy brain understand that? If she's not dead now then she's going to be soon and I'm not going to stick around and join in on that party. I say we just fucking forget her and focus on getting the fuck out of here."

Ron shook his head. "Dawg we can't forget her."

"…Why not?" Adam asked, making all eyes go to him.

"Adam!" Jeff exclaimed, absolutely appalled to hear that come out of his mouth.

"Well what do you want me to say?" Adam asked, hopping right on the defensive. "It's nothing personal. She's a sweet girl and all that but the longer we stay here, the more likely it is we're all going to die too. Now I don't know about you, but that's not on my list of things to do any time soon."

Beth shook her head. "We can't even leave though. There's no door and the windows are ready to kill us if we go out them. So really, escaping don't look like a fucking option at the moment."

"So we MAKE it an option," Michelle said, standing herself up to her full height and folding her arms over her chest.

"And how do you suggest we do that?" Natalya asked.

"Simple: that Lucy bitch has to be the one keeping us here. And maybe that other little one, who knows? So if we get rid of them-"

"Wait, are you saying like we kill them or something?" Tiffany asked incredulously.

"Yes dumbass, keep up with the program."

"And what if they can't be killed?" Mark asked. "Or what if that don't solve the problem?"

"Well it's a lot better than just sitting here and waiting for you to finally decide to do something!" Michelle snapped. "Who cares what they are? Let's just kill them and get this over with."

"Knowing what they are can lead to us knowing how to actually stop them," Glenn said, really wishing that Mark would just let James kill her already. With the way she was going on now, she was going to get a boat load of people killed.

Michelle rolled her eyes and looked at the others. "I'm going to put a stop to this and get myself out of here. Anyone who wants to join me is welcome to. And if you want to sit here like some waiting duck then go ahead. It's your funeral."

The others all exchanged looks. For some, the decision was easy. Jeff and Chris moved closer to Mark because they weren't about to dare go along with whatever Michelle had planned. That spelled certain doom all over it. Mike, Ted and Maryse were all swayed though and they got up and joined her. Adam and Randy looked tempted as hell to do it because they were desperate to get the fuck out of there but in the end they stayed where they were.

"Uh…can we return our focus to Eve for a moment?" Bryan asked as that quartet trotted off. It was really really bothering him that more focus wasn't being put on her when they didn't even know for sure if she was dead or not. And seeing as how she was actually a decent human being (which was sometimes hard to find in the wrestling business), he didn't think she deserved to just be left to the wolves.

Melina nodded and got up. "Come on," she said. "We'll go look for her."

"Us too," Ron said after exchanging a quick look with John.

"Uh…can I count the ways that's not a good idea?" Jay asked. He cast a quick glance at Mark and Glenn, expecting them to put a stop to that plan. Neither Brother of Destruction spoke up though. It wasn't like it would do any good. They didn't have the time or patience to fight with anyone. The top priority was figuring out what they were dealing with and ending it. Anyone who wanted to run off on their own was signing their own death certificate.

Tiffany shook her head and got down on the floor so she could hug Connor. "We're going to be okay," she assured him even though she didn't believe it for a second. "We're going to be okay and we're going to be going home real soon, okay?"

Connor didn't show that he heard her in any way. He just stuck his thumb in his mouth and sucked on it. Lucy wanted him to die. She wanted all of them to die. He knew it because she told him so. And if she wanted it so badly then it was going to happen. He just knew it.

James shook his head and looked at Mark. "A plan would be nice right now Marky."

"I'm working on it Lawson."

Cooper just shook his head. _Well we're fucked then_, he thought to himself as he cradled Connor's head in his arms and continued with the whole comforting thing even though it, like the search for Eve probably was, was a lost cause.


	12. Aren't You Having Fun?

Ted kept a tight hold of Maryse's hand and tried to ignore how clammy his own palms were as they followed Michelle and Mike through the hotel's hallways. They were all armed with knives they had gotten from the kitchen but Ted couldn't help but feel like they weren't enough. And he also felt like that not only were they being watched, but the hotel was…well _shifting_. They would go down one hall and then Ted would sometimes look back and it was like what was behind them was different somehow. He was doing his best to convince himself he was just being paranoid but it wasn't working so well. "Guys," he said slowly, trying to keep his voice as normal sounding as possible even though it wanted to crack from nervousness. "I don't like this."

Mike snorted obnoxiously loud and shook his head. "The rest of us aren't too crazy about this situation either Teddy. But we're doing it quietly. Maybe you should look into doing the same."

"And maybe I should look into shoving my foot up your ass," Ted shot back irritably. People were dying and he was scared out of his mind. The last thing he wanted to hear was shit coming from Mike's mouth.

"Oh yes, let's start bickering like children," Michelle said sarcastically before Mike could retort with something obnoxious. "Because THAT'S what we need to do."

"Hey, it relieves the tension," Mike said in his own defense. "You can all focus on this scary bullshit and think about how we're all going to die a horrible death if we don't succeed in this little plan of ours but I would rather try to distract myself from that at least a little bit."

"But your ways of doing things are so annoying," Maryse said, flipping her hair extensions behind her shoulder and snuggling up as close to Ted as she could without hindering their walking. "You are too obnoxious Mizzie."

Mike shot her a dirty look. "What did I tell you about calling me that?"

"I'm your ex Mizzie. That gives me rights to call you whatever I want." The truth of the matter was, they had only dated for about two weeks because he was rebounding from Morrison. Then she had dumped him to pursue a fling with Mickie James and he had moved on to trying to woo John Cena into his bed (and had failed miserably at it).

Mike made a face but for once chose to keep his snide comments to himself in favor of looking around and shaking his head impatiently. "Is our plan seriously just to walk around this hotel and hope we run into this bitch?" he asked. "Because if it is our plan seriously sucks!"

Michelle rolled her eyes. "Well do you have a better plan of attack? Because if you do, I would love to hear it."

Mike muttered something under his breath but Ted didn't make an effort to try to hear what he was saying. He didn't care how annoying Michelle was; Mike was even worse than she was and he was definitely dumber than she was overall. She at least used to be a teacher, so it wasn't like she was lacking in intelligence.

Maryse hugged Ted's arm and rested her head against his shoulder. "Teddy?"

"Yeah," he said, turning his head so he could look at her.

"If we get out of this, I think I might have to go shopping to make myself feel better." She batted her eyelashes at him and he knew she was itching to once again get her hands on his credit card.

Mike smirked, knowing that Ted's credit was going to be fucked in the near future (assuming any of them had one at this point) so he decided to entertain and distract himself by rubbing salt in Ted's wounds. "Now I ain't saying she's a gold digger," he taunted, dancing around and giving Ted a very smug look.

"Oh for the love of God!" Michelle groaned as Ted and Maryse both shot Mike dirty looks. She couldn't believe how fucking immature he was. "Would you stop?"

"But she ain't messing with no broke-"

BANG!

Maryse screamed and clung to Ted for dear life while Miz whirled around, nearly pissing himself out of fright. "What the fuck was THAT?" he asked.

"I have no idea," Michelle said, raising her knife defensively.

"Well THAT'S helpful!"

"Miz just shut up," Ted ordered. "You're not helping." He detached Maryse from him as best as he could to get her behind him before taking a very tentative step forward. He was fighting his urge to panic as much as he possibly could but it was a very very hard thing to do given their current situation.

"Maybe it's her," Michelle said, gripping her knife even more tightly and looking around wildly. "Little bitch is probably just trying to scare us."

"Well I think she succeeded," Mike said as he joined Maryse in the hiding behind Ted. "Fucking little bitch really does know-"

BANG! This time they all screamed as a man and a woman came tumbling out of the room right in front of them. The woman's face was a battered and bloody mess and her dress was so badly torn that she might as well have been naked. She let out the shrillest and most desperate scream Ted had ever heard in his life as she tried to scramble away but the man wasn't having any of that. He grabbed her by the ankles and pulled her back so he could wrap one hand around her throat and begin punching her with the other one.

"Hey!" Ted shouted, forgetting his fear for a moment in order to lunge forward in order to tear the guy off of her. He had been raised to NEVER strike a woman or to just stand idly by if some other guy started to do it. "Get off her!" He tried to grab the guy by the back of his neck but his hand went right through him. "Oh fuck…"

"Teddy…" Maryse said nervously, now clinging to Michelle and secretly planning on pushing her former rival at the ghosts if they decided to come at her. It wasn't like she liked her or anything. She had only followed her because she hadn't wanted to just sit around and wait to die. It didn't mean she wouldn't throw McCool to the wolves if it came down to it. Hell she would throw Mike in and possibly Ted if she really had to. She liked living way too much to allow herself to get killed at this point of her life.

"You stupid bitch!" the man yelled, just pummeling the poor woman's face to the point where she really didn't even have one anymore. Her struggles were getting weaker and weaker and Ted knew that they were about to stop very soon. "Why did you let him take you away? Why did you leave me? You stupid bitch! You were supposed to love me. YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO LOVE ME!" With tears running down his eyes and snot down his nose and all over his lips, the man gave her one final punch before gasping for breath and staring down at the damage he had done. Slowly the rage melted out his eyes and he put his hand over his mouth, quickly replaced by horror over what he had done. "Oh my God," he said softly, taking his hand off his mouth and pulling her head up so he could hug it against his chest. "I'm sorry!" he wailed, crying hysterically and petting the dead woman's hair. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry Cara I'm sorry! Please come back! Please please come back!"

"Wow," Mike said, shaking his head at all this. That was about all he could really say. Watching this felt completely and totally wrong. Like really, he wanted to just back off and leave this scene to unfold by itself but his feet wouldn't move. It was like they were glued to the floor or something.

The man just sat there for several minutes, crying his eyes out and cradling the dead woman's head like it was the most precious thing in the world. Gradually his sobs subsided somewhat and he reached to his inside coat pocket and pulled out a pistol. Ted immediately jumped back towards the others, snapping his eyes shut as the guy put the gun to the side of his head and pulled the trigger. Maryse screamed and Michelle sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth and gagged.

"What the FUCK is wrong with this place? What the fuck was the point-"

"I don't know and I don't care," Ted said, turning himself around before opening his eyes. "I just want to look for Lucy somewhere else. How does that sound?"

"That sounds fantastic," Mike said, leading the pack in getting the fuck away from the scene they had just witnessed. "Really, I think that was the best idea all fucking day."

…

Ron kept himself as close to John and the others as possible, not liking the unsettling feeling that was inside of him. They were searching for Eve and not getting anywhere, which was really frustrating. He was trying not to get discouraged though and he was trying to believe that she was still alive. The odds were definitely not in her favor but she was his friend. He didn't want to believe she was gone until he absolutely had to.

"How long do you think Michelle's group is going to last?" John asked out of pure curiosity.

Melina shrugged and hugged John's arm. He was her ex so she was naturally going to cling more to him than the other two. "I wouldn't be surprised if they were already dead." Those four really weren't he brightest bulbs in the universe; they were more opportunistic than anything else.

Ron nodded. He wouldn't be surprised by that either…hell he was more surprised nothing had jumped out at them yet and tried to off them. "Eve?" he called out yet again, knowing deep down that calling out for her was probably not the smartest idea in the world. "Eve? Come on girl, it's me now. If you can hear me and if you can do it, give me some kind of sign baby girl."

John raised his eyebrows at that. "Baby girl?"

Ron shrugged. "It seemed like the thing to say. Just roll with it."

There was a loud scream that sounded close by and Bryan's eyes immediately widened. "Do you think-"

"Maybe," Ron replied, already taking off in the direction that he heard the screams coming from. He hadn't ever heard Eve scream before so he couldn't be one hundred percent sure if it was her or not but he was going to find out one way or another. He heard the others running behind him but he didn't slow down for a second. Instead he kept running until he got to the room the screams seemed to be coming from. His heart sank when he saw that the room was empty but then he heard the scream again and realized it was coming from the bathroom. "Eve!" he yelled, barging right in there and finding Lucy sitting cross legged on Eve's corpse and smiling at him like the demented little bitch she was.

"Hi Ronald," she said, smoothing out her dress which was just completely drenched in Eve's blood. "Would you like to go for a swim?"

Ron shook his head, jumping a good foot in the air when the door slammed shut behind him. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" he asked as he grabbed on to the door handle and tried to open it once more. The fucking thing wouldn't budge though. He was trapped.

"What's wrong with me?" Lucy pouted at that question. "Now that was rude. How could you ask me something like that? Didn't your mommy teach you any manners?" She tilted her head to the side and studied him closely. "You do know who your mommy is right?"

Ron gave her a dirty look and tried not to stare at Eve's body because it made him want to throw up. "Why are you doing this?"

Lucy shrugged. "It's fun. Aren't you having fun?" She giggled at the look on his face. "Maybe you would have more fun if you went for a swim…"

The words had barely left her mouth before something hit him so hard from behind that he almost lost consciousness on impact. When he somewhat regained his bearings again it was just in time to get his head shoved into the bathtub, which was overflowing with blood instead of water. He tried to take in a proper breath before he went under but he didn't get enough time so his lungs started bothering him within seconds after being dunked under. He began struggling as hard as he possibly could, unable to form a single coherent thought because he was panicking so badly. With every second that went by his lungs began to burn more and more, which only increased his panicking. He knew that at a certain point his mouth was going to open against his will so he could take a much needed breath even if there was no oxygen for it and once that happened he was fucked.

He gripped on to the edge of the bathtub and tried to force his head back up but whatever had him just increased the pressure they were using to hold him down. His feet began to kick wildly in a last ditch effort to get himself free but then it happened. His body stopped listening to his mind and he opened his mouth and sucked in a giant mouthful of blood. It instantly filled his lungs and he tried to cough it out but it was too late. The warm red liquid was suffocating him and his mind screamed in agony before going dark and knowing no more.

…

Just sitting around and waiting for Mark and Glenn to make a decision about what to do was a lot harder than Jeff thought it would be. The minutes dragged like hours and there was nothing to really distract him from the ever mounting tension that was rising in the room. He was sitting on Chris's lap on the chair, wishing he had his nail polish with him because painting nails always put him a Zen kind of place, which would have been very welcomed at the moment. But since he couldn't have that, he was just resting his head against Chris's shoulder, watching everyone else around him. Jay and Adam were having a thumb war that involved a good amount of cheating while Matt and Randy talked between themselves and rolled their eyes at their lovers. Beth had relieved Evan of his watching Kelly duties and was allowing the younger woman to cling to her for dear life instead. Connor was still a mess and nothing Cooper or Tiffany did seemed to help. And to top it all off, now Cody was a mess and Natalya was having a fuck of a time dealing with him.

"I'm sure Ted's fine," she assured him, lying through her teeth because Ted was probably not fine at all but that was the last thing he needed to hear at the moment. "He's tough you know."

Cody didn't look convinced. "And what if he's not okay? What if he's hurt or something's after him? That fucking skank wouldn't save him. She would just run off and save herself."

Chris raised his eyebrows and moved his mouth closer to Jeff's ear so he could whisper into it without being overheard. "That little obsession of his is really starting to worry me."

Jeff frowned. "Obsession? He loves him."

"Maybe…but it's been months and he's still hasn't even really accepted that he and Ted are over. That's never a good sign babe."

Jeff knew he was right about that but he felt bad for Cody so he decided to just drop the subject and look over at Mark and Glenn, who were trying to have a serious discussion while James flicked Phil for his own amusement. Phil was trying to bat James's hand away and hide behind Glenn but James was persistent. _Nice to see that some things never change._

"You really think that would work?" Glenn asked, speaking loud enough to get everyone else's attention.

Mark shrugged. "It might. It's worth a shot anyway."

"What's worth a shot?" Randy asked. "Come on guys, share with the class."

"Yeah the suspense is going to kill all of us," Adam chimed in.

"Marky and Crispy want to do a containment spell," James answered for the Brothers of Destruction, which took everyone by surprise. "They want to take what's in this place and put it in this circle thing and contain so they can like kill it or whatever." He pouted when he noticed the way everyone was looking at him. "What? I listen! I have knowledge!"

If the situation would have been a little less dire Jeff would have giggled because James looked so indignant. But as it was, he only managed a weak smile. "Well I agree with Mark. It is worth a-" The sound of fingernails scraping against something made him stop right in mid-sentence. "What the fuck was that?" he asked nervously.

Chris tightened his grip on Jeff and cast a nervous look towards the fireplace. "It came from in there."

Adam, Jay and Randy immediately bolted as far away from the fireplace as they could get while Kelly just moaned unhappily. "What the fuck is it now?" she asked.

The sound of giggling made them all turn around to see that Lucy was standing there, cradling Eve's lifeless body in her arms like she was a doll or something. "Here comes Sandy Claws, here comes Sandy Claws, right down Sandy Claws lane," she sang, zeroing in the horrified Connor. "Sandy Claws is gonna eat you. Sandy is gonna eat you…"

"You fucking little-" Cooper started to go at her but she disappeared just in time for "Sandy Claws" to burst out of the fireplace. Jeff gasped and clung to Chris for dear life because he hadn't ever seen anything like it before in his life. The thing was about his size height wise so it wasn't huge but it had giant teeth and razor sharp nails to make up for that. Its skin was a greenish blackish color and it was wearing a full Santa outfit, which somehow managed to make it look even more scary, which was hard to believe.

"Connor," the thing croaked, grinning and revealing that it had even more teeth than what they all originally saw. "Oh Connor…"


	13. Sandy Claws

"No," Connor said, crab walking backwards and staring at Sandy Claws with horrified eyes. This couldn't be real. This had to be some sort of horrible nightmare that just felt really really weird. He had had nightmares about Sandy Claws before but never had he looked like this. He always at least somewhat resembled the "traditional Santa" that people loved for whatever reason. This thing didn't look anything like the bastard. He was much much worse. It was a straight up monster and it was staring right at him with red eyes that promised all kinds of death and destruction if it got its hands on him.

"Holy fucking shit," Jay said under his breath. He and Jeff were hiding behind Matt and Chris and they were staying as far back against the wall as they possibly could. This situation was just so fucking beyond fucked up. He didn't know what this Lucy girl was and he was officially beyond caring (although that wasn't saying much because he didn't truly care to find out in the first place). He just wanted to find a way out of there and run as fast as he possibly could and never look back.

"Connor," Sandy Claws drawled out. It grinned at him and beckoned him with one of its long, clawed fingers. "Connor…"

James immediately placed himself in between Sandy Claws and Connor and was quickly joined by Cooper. "Marky, now would be a great time to make this thing go away," he said, clenching his fists and not taking his eyes off the ugly thing for a single second. He could practically feel Connor's fear rolling off of him in waves and jacked his protectiveness up to somewhere off the charts. He didn't give a damn what this thing thought it was but it wasn't coming near his son if he had anything to say about it.

"I'm not a magician Lawson," Mark said, both he and Glenn doing their best to help surround the creature without it realizing it. "I can't just make it disappear…we just got to make it die."

"Finally, you say something smart," Cooper sassed just for the sake of being a smartass. "It's a Christmas miracle."

"Connor," Sandy Claws said again, knowing damn well it was being surrounded but not giving a shit in the slightest. It was focused on one person and one person only. "Connnnnnnorrrrr."

"No," Connor whimpered. "No no no no…." His heart beat was becoming completely erratic and he could hardly even breathe because his chest was tightening up as a result of the panic attack he was now having. He could hear the thing growling at him and it was just making it worse. "No no no no no go away go away…" Now he could picture the thing ripping him apart piece by piece and he could actually faintly _feel_ the thing doing it and that was the final straw for him. It didn't matter that he had only just imagined that. It had felt real enough to him and it sent him into a full on tizzy. "Go away go away go-LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"Connor no!" Phil yelled as Connor scrambled up to his feet and bolted out of the room as fast as he could.

James immediately whirled around and tried to also yell for Connor to stop but that proved to be a huge mistake. Sandy Claws lunged right at him, digging its claws into his chest and using him as a launching pad to get out of the circle it was trapped in. Cooper immediately lunged right after him and did manage to grab on to the thing's ankle, but was forced to let go when it kicked him square in the face, not only breaking his nose but nearly clawing his eyes out with the talons it had on its feet.

"NO!" James shouted, pushing himself back up to his feet and tearing after Sandy Claws as fast as he possibly could. "YOU FUCKING LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

"James!" Despite the fact that his knees were completely shit, Mark ran right after James, although Cooper, Tiffany and Natalya quickly passed him. Glenn joined the chase because he wasn't about to go anywhere in this place without his brother and Phil of course trailed after Glenn because where the Big Red Machine went, he was sure to follow.

"Oh my God," Kelly whimpered as she clung to Beth for dear life. "Oh my God, what do we do? What do we do?"

Nobody really rushed to answer her. Nobody knew what to fucking do. The original plan of staying right by Mark and Glenn had fallen apart the moment they went chasing after Sandy Claws. As safe as staying with the Brothers of Destruction seemed beforehand, trying to stay with them while they were chasing down a fucked up looking monster just seemed counterproductive to their survival instincts.

"Where's that fucking little girl?" Adam asked, breaking up the silence by looking around wildly for Lucy. She had just been there three fucking seconds ago but of course now she was gone, which did not set well with him at all. "Where the fuck did she go? She was just here! She was just right fucking here!"

Randy put his hands up and slowly began to approach his boyfriend. "Baby-"

"No! She was right fucking here!" Adam was not about to be calmed down. He was angry and freaking out and enough was enough. "Where the fuck are you?" he yelled out, looking all around like Lucy was just going to show up because he was calling her out. "Come on out you little bitch! You're not afraid are you? COME ON!"

"Don't PROVOKE her!" Kelly said hysterically.

"Yeah really," Jeff agreed. "I would like to not have her angry if at all possible."

"Dude, she's picking us off like flies," Adam snapped. "We didn't even do anything to her yet she's killing us. I think it's safe to say her Cheerios have already been pissed in."

"Uh…guys?" Evan hated to interrupt because he didn't want to get his head taken off but he had noticed something very important that needed to be brought to everyone else's attention.

"What?" Adam snapped, glaring at Evan angrily. "What now?"

Evan hesitantly waved his hands around the room. "Cody's um…Cody's gone."

All eyes immediately scanned the room and Beth groaned as she realized he was right. "Oh God…that can't be good."

…

Connor had no idea where the hell he was going. He could hear James and Cooper yelling for him but he wasn't even beginning to slow down. As fast as he was running, Sandy Claws was managing to stay right on his heels. "LEAVE ME ALONE!" he screamed again. "GO AWAY!"

Sandy Claws only growled in response, which made him run even faster and go through the first door he could get through. This led him into the hotel restaurant and he tried to take just a second to look around and make sure he wasn't boxed in this room. That second cost him though because he felt Sandy's claws scrape against his back, which prompted him to propel himself forwards so hard that he fell, twisting his ankle in the process.

"DADDY!" he screamed as he rolled underneath the nearest table for safety. "DADDY!"

"CONNOR!" James shouted, heading full speed towards the restaurant when the doorway disappeared completely, causing him to run right into the wall. Connor had no time to even realize that though. Sandy Claws had flipped the table over and had grabbed him by the back of the neck, digging his claws into his flesh and making blood pour out of the wounds.

"Ow ow ow!" Connor began swinging and trying to twist himself out of the monster's grasp. His adrenaline was going so hard that he could barely even feel the pain in his injured ankle-at least not until he managed to get loose and tried to start running again. He just about fell once again because he couldn't even begin to put weight on it. He managed to keep himself from falling and hopped his way across the room, getting to the door that was on the other side and grasping the handle for support.

"Daddy!" he screamed again, looking back and finally seeing that the door he had originally come through had sealed itself into being gone, which meant James couldn't get in to save him. "Daddy!"

"Connor," Sandy Claws rasped out. "Come play with us Connor…forever and ever and ever."

"NO!" Connor went through the doorway and saw a staircase in front of him. He remembered Cooper telling him that it was never a good idea to go upstairs when someone was chasing you so he started to go to the right but he quickly saw that that was a dead end. Quickly he tried to change directions but that way had an Eve holding Lucy blocking his path. Upstairs it would have to be then.

A set of teeth sank into the upper part of his left arm, making him scream and wrench himself free. A huge chunk of his flesh was left behind and the pain was fucking horrendous but he didn't have time to focus on that. He had to force himself up the stairs, doing his best just to hop up them but occasionally having to put weight on his injured ankle. It gave out nearly ever time he did it and by the time he reached the top of the stairs, he was crying so hysterically that he was hyperventilating.

"Coopy!" The level he was up on now was so dark and dusty that he could barely see or breathe. "Daddy?" His voice was cracking from the strain of him screaming so much. He forced himself forward, grabbing on to any door he could reach. None of them wanted to open though no matter how hard he tried. "Oh come on!" he moaned miserably. "Come on! Stop being mean!" He glanced back and shrieked as he saw Sandy Claws standing at the top of the staircase, toying with him by stalking him as slowly as possible.

"Fuck fuck fuck!" He backed up and grabbed on to yet another door handle, only this time the door was unlocked. He quickly went inside the room and closed and locked the door behind him. It wouldn't keep Sandy Claws out for too long but it did give him a moment to catch his breath.

"Oh Connor, don't poop out on me now. We haven't had nearly enough fun yet."

Connor yelped and whirled around to see Lucy sitting on the bed behind him, holding Eve and playing with her hair like she was a doll or something. "How-"

"The hotel bends to my will," Lucy answered pleasantly. "It's in every square inch of this place. Some would say I infected it. I would say to them…well actually I've killed anyone who's said that so it don't really matter now does it?"

He shook his head, jumping when he heard Sandy Claws pounding on the door. "Stop it," he pleaded. "Make it stop."

"No."

"Why?" He collapsed on to the floor in tears and looked at her hatefully. "Why won't you stop?"

"Because you're all still alive." That answer made him whimper and cry more. "Oh now stop blubbering. That's not attractive." She groaned when he kept right on crying. "Look, how about I make a you a deal. You give me something I need and I'll get Sandy Claws to stop being such a big meanie to you. How does that sound?"

Any sort of rational person would have seen that the deal was clearly not going to be on the level at all. The very gleam of her black eyes promised that. But Connor was not the brightest bulb in the universe to begin with and he was tired, in a tremendous amount of pain and terrified out of his mind. He couldn't even begin to realize what he was doing as he forced himself up and plopped back down on the bed, shivering as Lucy grabbed his arm and turned it over so she could stare at the veins in his arms. "Wha…what are you going to do?" he asked nervously.

She grinned at the question. "I just need to take something from you. It won't hurt…much."

Connor's eyes widened as she pulled out a knife from underneath Eve's body and he immediately tried to escape but she slashed the blade downwards, going from the top of his wrist all the way to his elbow. He screamed and tried to get away but she tightened her grip on him and kept him from getting anywhere while she moved Eve's head and positioned it underneath his bleeding arm.

"She is going to come so in handy," she said as she forced the dead woman's mouth open and allowed Connor's blood to drip into it. "You have no idea how useful you just became. I'm really quite proud of you."

Connor barely even heard her. He just waited until she let his wrist go before clutching it close to his chest and curling up into a little ball, staying right there on the bed and bawling his eyes out until he mercifully passed out.


	14. The Voices

"Ron!" John yelled, scared to death because his lover was nowhere in sight. They had been on his trail but then he had just disappeared on them and now they couldn't find him again. "Ron!" His heart was just pounding away on the inside of his chest. Fuck he was so fucking terrified. "Ron! God damn it, this isn't funny!" He couldn't even keep the anger in his own voice. He could only imagine what had happened to Ron and none of it was good.

"We'll find him," Melina said, reaching out and trying to give John a comforting touch. It was tearing her apart to see him so worried out of his mind. "We'll find him, I promise."

John couldn't even really respond. He wanted to believe her. He wanted to believe her so fucking bad because he couldn't bear to think about anything happening to Ron but given the circumstances, how could anything be happening except for the worst possible scenario? How could she try to fool him into thinking everything was going to be alright when it really wasn't?

"Ron?" Bryan called out, taking a couple steps ahead but stopping when the lights began to flicker. "Oh fuck. That can't be good."

"Way to state the obvious," Melina muttered, grabbing on to both Bryan and John so they wouldn't get separated. But while Bryan squeezed her hand in return, John just let his hand dangle in hers. He could hear the sound of a bunch of voices whispering but he couldn't tell what the hell they were saying. "Anyone else hear that?" he asked nervously.

"Hear what?" Melina asked, her voice cracking in hysteria. "Hear what? I don't hear-"

"Sssshhh!" Bryan placed his hand over her mouth to make her be quiet. He swore her heard it too and once she fell silent he knew for sure that he was hearing it. What it was exactly though, remained a mystery to him-at first anyway. Rapidly though, the whispering started to get louder and louder and the words became more and more clear.

**Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posies, ashes ashes you all fall down.**

** Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posies, ashes ashes you all fall down.**

"You know, I've never liked that one to begin with," Melina said as she clung to Bryan and John even more. "But I like it even less now."

_**Eeeny meeny miney moe, we caught the nigger by his toe**_

"Whoa," Bryan said as John noticeably stiffened at those words. "Okay creepy voices, tone down the racism please!"

Melina blinked and shook her head. "You're scolding the creepy voice for racism? Really? You really think it gives a damn?"

"Probably not," Bryan admitted sheepishly. "But-

**We got him real good didn't we?**

_**Oh yes we got him good**_

**String him up! String him up!**

_**Let him burn! Let him burn!**_

"Oh God," John moaned, his legs getting so weak that he would have fallen over if Melina hadn't grabbed on to him even more to help hold him up. They were talking about Ron. He just knew it. He didn't know how he knew it but he did know it. "Oh God oh God." He closed his eyes and tried to will himself to wake up. This had to be a nightmare. A horrible fucking nightmare that he was going to wake up from any minute. "Wake up. Please wake up. Please wake up…"

Melina suddenly screamed and against his will, John's eyes opened and he screamed too at the sight before him. Ron's body was dangling upside down from the ceiling, literally hanging by his toes while his cold lifeless eyes stared blankly at them. "NO!" John screamed, lunging forward without realizing it and having to be restrained by Bryan and Melina.

**He's so sad.**

_**Boo hoo boo hoo.**_

**You know what we do to men that love the coons now don't you?**

"Oh my god, shut up!" Melina yelled angrily. She and Bryan were trying to drag John away but he wasn't going anywhere if he could help it. His feet were glued to the spot and all he could do was stare at Ron's body. "Shut up you fucking bastards!"

_**She's a mouthy little bitch.**_

**Always a mouthy little bitch. You know what we do to whores like you you fucking cunt?**

_**We lynch them! We lynch them all!**_

"I do not-SWEET JESUS!" Bryan just about jumped out of his skin as what he could only describe as mummies literally came out of the walls and began grabbing at all of them. He couldn't even count how many there were. He just had to start doing everything in his power to get out of their grasp. "Mother fucker!" He elbowed one in its withered face and then tried to also start shielding Melina, who was freaking out because the things kept grabbing her hair.

"Get it off, get it off!" she shrieked.

"I'm trying!" he yelled back. He elbowed the one that had her hair at that moment so hard that it's arm broke off with the hand still tangled in her hair. He winced as she screamed and just ripped the thing out in pure terror but there was no time to rest. "Come on!" He hugged her protectively and barreled through the small army that was descending upon them, surprised that he actually managed to get them through them without being stopped really-but the reason as to why became clear when John began to scream.

"NO!" Melina turned back around and tried to go back to help John. Bryan tried to go back too because he felt horrible that he hadn't even realized that John wasn't with them until now but he stopped and grabbed Melina when he saw John's decapitated head flying up in the air. The mummies, who had only descended upon him seconds ago, had already done their job.

"NO!" Melina sobbed, shaking her head and sinking weakly into Bryan's arms. "No no no no…."

"Fuck fuck fuck!" There was no sense in trying to get her to run. She was just limp and terrified. So he did the sensible thing and scooped her into his arms in a wedding carry before bolting as fast as he could, not daring to look back and see if any of those things were chasing them.

…

Mary shivered as she hugged her legs to her chest and watched Lucy continue working her mojo on Eve's body. "You shouldn't do this," she said softly. "It's going to be bad."

Lucy laughed at that. "Yeah, I know. Why do you think I'm doing this?"

Mary shivered some more and shook her head. "Not bad for them. Bad for you. You don't know what you're doing."

Lucy didn't find that one so amusing. "Excuse me?" she snarled, turning around and taking a threatening step towards Mary. "What did you just say?"

Mary whimpered in fear. "Make her a zombie instead," she begged. "Zombies are scary. You know there are."

Lucy snorted before going the rest of the way over to Mary and slapping her across the face. "A zombie? You want me to make a pathetic zombie?" She shook her head in disbelief. "No no no, I don't need to make one of those again." She grabbed on to Mary's hair and yanked on it until she looked over at Eve. "You see that? Soon enough, she's going to be one of the greatest weapons I've ever used. So why don't you just keep your mouth shut and enjoy the carnage for once?"

Mary shook her head. No, she wouldn't ever enjoy all of this. She didn't want to hurt anyone. She just wanted all of this to stop.

"Fine, suit yourself." Lucy thrashed Mary to the ground violently and then walked back over to Eve. "I guess I'll just have to have fun for the both of us then."

…

"CONNOR!" To say James was going absolutely nuts would be a bit of an understatement. Cooper had never seen his father like this ever. The larger man was just screaming for his younger brother and running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Nobody could stop him either. Mark was trying but it just wasn't working. James was hysterical and he was going to stay that way. "CONNOR!" The restaurant doors had opened awhile ago but Connor and Sandy Claws were long gone, which had sent James into even more of a tizzy. They could have been absolutely anywhere at this point and Cooper was just as scared as James was about this whole situation. Connor was the baby. He had always been the baby. If people thought James buried Cooper, it was nothing compared to how Connor was treated. "CONNOR!"

"We'll find him," Mark said yet again, his voice not that convincing-or maybe James's hysteria was catching on to Cooper. "We're going to find him-"

"How do you know?" James snapped. "What if he's dead already?"

"Hey hey hey, he's NOT dead," Nattie said firmly.

"Yeah really," Phil agreed. As much as he hated the Lawsons, he couldn't help but feel kind of bad about this Connor situation. Yes the little bastard was annoying as fuck and he was utterly psychotic but the way he was had been beyond his control from birth and there was no way being chased by a giant demon Santa was going to be good for his mental health. "He's the one man wrecking crew. He's tough enough to-"

"That thing could have ripped him limb to limb by now." James wasn't even listening to them. He was too lost in his paranoia, which was running away from him. "It could have-"

"Dad shut up!" Cooper snapped, sounding much harsher than he meant to. He just couldn't stand to hear all the shit James was thinking because it had already gone through his own mind and it fucking terrified him. "We'll find him okay? Just shut the fuck up and help me look."

James nodded along, falling silent and obeying Cooper's order without question. The others all exchanged looks but just went with it because not only was finding Connor still numero uno, but they did not want James to start freaking out again by any means. It just was not a pretty look on him.

"Hello? Is anyone there? HELLO!"

"Was that…was that Cody?" Tiffany asked as they all stopped in their tracks at the sound of that yell.

"I think it was," Nattie said. "Why-"

"Oh who the hell knows," Glenn grumbled crankily. "Idiot probably went off looking for Ted so he could pine over him some more and got himself lost."

Phil frowned and shifted around uncomfortably. "That was kind of mean babe."

"Yeah, well it's been that kind of a day." Glenn opened up the door nearest to him in order to see if Connor was in there and a whole hoard of mice ran out of there. Phil and Tiffany both screamed at the top of their lungs and he scrambled up to Glenn's back for safety while Tiffany jumped up on to Mark, who just stared at her incredulously.

"Oh…sorry." She got off him and clung to Nattie instead. Cooper shook his head, knowing this was not the best time but he had to say something. A young blonde girl clinging to a guy famous for banging blonde chicks behind his dad's back? Yeah, something had to be done to lighten the mood."

"Just so you know, he either impregnated you, or you've got herpes. Either way, go to the doctor."

Mark gave him an irritated look. "Really Cooper? Really?"

"Yes Miz, really. Now shut up and find my brother."

…

Cody looked around nervously, unsure about as to how the hell he had gotten there in the first place. One minute he had been in the lobby with the others and the next he had been in a random hotel room that he now couldn't get out of. "Let me out!" he yelled, pounding on the door even though it had been proven that was doing absolutely no good to do so. "Hey! Is someone out there? Come on now, this isn't funny?"

No answer. Not surprising. Cursing in frustration he kicked the door before resting his forehead against it so he could try to contemplate his next move. He hadn't been separated from the others for nothing. At least he didn't think so. Either way though, he knew he didn't like it. It just could not mean anything good.

A loud gasp sounded throughout the room and he spun around to find Maryse and Ted on the bed, the French Canadian woman frantically riding his former boyfriend. He blinked, unable to believe what he was seeing because neither one of them had been in the room with him when he had arrived…or had they? He didn't know. He didn't fucking know anything anymore.

"Oooh Teddy," Maryse moaned, grinding into him and placing one of her hands on his chest. "Fuck me harder. Make me scream Teddy."

Cody balled up his fists and tried to swallow down the bile that had risen up to his throat. That fucking bitch. She was always rubbing Ted in his face like he was some kind of trophy fuck. She didn't care about him the way he did. He loved Ted. He genuinely loved him and it fucking pained him to see him get used like this.

**So why don't you just do something about it instead of just standing there like a fucking idiot?**

Cody jumped slightly and looked around. "Who said that?" he asked. "Who's there?"

_**We did. We said it. **_Great, there was another voice now. How wonderful.

"And who are we exactly?"

**We live here.**

_**We've been trapped here for so long**_

**We are the hate that brews inside the Dark One.**

_**We serve our master and do her bidding.**_

"So…you're with Lucy?" Cody had to turn away from Maryse and Ted because he couldn't concentrate on these freaky voices while watching them.

The voices just laughed. **Enough about us silly boy. Let's focus on you and you're love.**

"Can you just tell her to let us go?" He didn't want to focus on himself. That just was not on his list of things to do at the moment. "Come on, we'll give her something nice if she does."

_**We could try but why would we do that before we could help you?**_

"Help me? What do you mean help me?"

**Well we've noticed that you're desperately in love with this Ted fellow.**

_**It's quite pathetic really.**_

**Yes but SHE'S worse.**

_**Oh yes, she's much worse. This is what happened the night before the madness started. We just saved this image for you so you could observe the scene for yourself.**_

Cody shook his head. "Look, I don't know what you heard, but I'm not into-"

"Tell me you love me more than Cody," Maryse ordered, grabbing Ted's hands and placing them above his head so she could pin them down. "Tell me you love me more than that little nerd."

"You fucking bitch!" Cody growled, taking a step toward the bed when she and Ted both disappeared on her. "No! Put her back so I can get her!"

**Why go after the echo when you can go after the real thing?**

_**She's poisoning him you know. Keeping him from coming back to you with lies and deceit. Only you can save him.**_

"How though?" he asked, looking all around the room to see if he could figure out the source of the voices. "How do I do that?"

**Oh we know a way. A very very special way.**

_**All you have to do is accept our help and then the boy is yours.**_

Cody froze for a moment and thought about it. Common sense would have told him that this was not on the level but not only did he not have much common sense, but these things had played on his one major weakness. The way he missed Ted was unbearable to deal with anymore and he had to do something if Maryse was fucking with Ted's mind as well as his heart. "Okay," he agreed.

**Okay what?**

_**Ask nicely boy.**_

"Please…help me get rid of her.

The voice laughed.

_**It will be-**_

**Our pleasure.**


	15. Bloodbath

"I think we are…how do you say it? Chasing our tails?" Maryse flipped her hair over her shoulder and shook her head unhappily. The hunt she was a part of was going absolutely nowhere and she was sick of it.

"Maybe we are," Ted admitted. "But what do you want us to do? We stop now and the bitch will probably jump right out and fuck with us."

Maryse rolled her eyes. She honestly didn't care at this point. Let the bitch try to come and fuck with them. At least they would finally find her and have a shot at taking her out. "Whatever. I have to pee."

Mike wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Ew. You could have kept that information to yourself Frenchie."

Maryse shook her head. She didn't care whether she grossed anyone out or not. She had to go and that was that. "I'm not going alone. You all have to go with me."

"What?" Mike said in disbelief. "Are you kidding? I'm not watching you pee!"

"I never said anything watching me you perv," Maryse snapped. "I just said come with me."

"Let's just go with her," Ted said in exasperation. "The instant we split up is the instant bad shit will start to happen." Of course the bad shit was more than likely going to happen even if they all stayed together but he just knew splitting up now was just asking for trouble.

"But-"

"Oh my God! Quit your whining!" Michelle ordered. She looked ready to kill Mike before anything in the hotel got a chance to do so. "You sound like a damn child!"

"Well excuuuuse me!"

"You're excused Vickie."

"Oooh," Ted said, which just made Maryse roll her eyes. She was surrounded by imbeciles. Really, that was all there was to it.

Mike gave Michelle the death glare as they located a restroom and Michelle simply ignored it. Once they were in the bathroom, Ted, Michelle and Mike all turned their backs while Maryse did her business, Mike taking the extra initiative to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star all the while (which was really just a big distraction and it took Maryse twice as long to go because of it). Once she was done she reached for the sink to wash her hands but before she could even touch the handle the pipes made a loud gurgling noise. "What was that?" she asked nervously.

"I think it might have been my tummy," Mike said, putting both of his hands on his stomach and shaking his head. "I'm really fucking hungry right now."

The gurgling noise came up again, only it was much louder this time and actually made the pipes rattle. "Dude, shit wasn't your stomach," Ted said with a shake of his head.

"Oh you think?" Michelle said in a very nasty voice. "Frenchie let's go. We'll find somewhere else to wash your hands."

Maryse was already planning on doing that and was going to snap at Michelle for even trying to boss her around (they still had bad blood since their days of feuding over the Divas title) when the pipes exploded and blood began to spray all over the room. All four of them screamed and bolted out the door as fast as they could, Maryse crashing and burning in the process. She reached out and grabbed on to Michelle in an attempt of keeping his balance but all she did was just pull the other blonde down with her.

"Fuck!" Michelle yelped as she banged herself up pretty good on the floor. Maryse let out a stream of curses in French while Ted pulled them back up to their feet and dragged them right on out of there.

"I fucking hate this place man," Mike complained as he ripped the covers off the nearest bed and began using them to wipe the blood off of him. "I fucking hate it!"

"The rest of us aren't exactly having a ball here either," Michelle said with a roll of her eyes. She grabbed on to the sheet Mike hadn't taken and started using that as her towel. "I swear, if I get out of this, I'm never staying in a hotel again. I'll just start sleeping in my car while I'm out on the road."

"Yeah really," Ted muttered. He looked down at himself in disgust before looking over at Maryse. "You okay?"

Marye's expression twisted into a scowl and she shook her head. "Am I okay? Am I OKAY? Do I LOOK okay to you?" She didn't even wait to hear his response to that. She was done. Just fucking done. She was drenched in blood and stuck in a death trap. Her bullshit level had officially been reached and she wasn't going to take it anymore.

"Uh oh…" Mike said under his breath. He recognized the look on his ex-girlfriend's face and he quickly got the hell back as she let out a shriek and started grabbing anything she could get a hold of and either throwing it across the room or knocking it over if it was too heavy to actually throw.

"Babe!" Ted said, trying to get a hold of her but jumping back when she screeched and made it seem like she was going to claw his eyes out for getting too close. "Babe stop! Pulling a Randy isn't going to solve anything!"

Maryse didn't give a shit. She was highly upset and this expression of rage felt damn good. Continuing to shriek at the top of her lungs, she tossed a Bible across the room, making it hit Michelle right on the side of the head.

"OW!" Michelle yelled, going right at Maryse only to be held back by Ted. "What the fuck is your problem?"

Maryse just shook her head and stormed out of the room, completely forgetting her earlier desire to not split up. She had had it. Absolutely fucking had it. This crap was going to stop and it was going to stop now because she was going to quit fucking around and do something about it.

"WHERE ARE YOU?" she screamed, throwing open every door she could reach and getting even more angry when she didn't find who she wanted. "WHERE ARE YOU?" Two more doors open, two more times coming up empty handed. "Come on! I'm right here! I'm RIGHT HERE come face me you little COWARD!"

"Maryse!" Ted yelled after her. She could hear him following her but she didn't stop and look back to see how close he was or if Michelle and Mike were even bothering to come after her too. "Maryse stop! Have you gone insane?"

The appropriate answer to that was yes, but she didn't stop to even go there. Instead she kept throwing open doors, not stopping until she opened up a room where a little girl with white eyes was sitting on the floor, brushing a doll's hair and shaking like a leaf. "You!" Maryse growled, storming over to her and ripping her doll out of her hands. "You're doing this!"

"N-n-no! Lucy is! Lucy! I'm not Lucy!" The little girl began crab walking backwards to get away from Maryse, who wasn't exactly in the mood to believe her. She looked exactly like Lucy; the only difference was the eyes and how did she know that the evil bitch hadn't changed her eye color just to fuck with her?

"I'm not Lucy," the girl insisted, crying her eyes out and shaking her head insistently. "I'm Mary, not Lucy. Not Lucy. Not anymore."

If Maryse hadn't been in the mood she was in, she might have picked up those last two words and realized that she could have maybe used them to her advantage. But she was in such a rage that she started to reach for Mary when the door slammed shut, making her jump and whirl around. Out of all the people in the hotel, she expected to see either Ted coming to try to calm her down or Lucy coming to finally face her (assuming she wasn't the one trying to claim she was someone else) but she didn't expect it to be Cody. "What do you want?" she asked, in absolutely no mood to deal with him right now. She was never actually in the mood to deal with him really. The little idiot was obsessed with Ted even though they broke up forever ago and was just convinced that she had brainwashed him or something. It was absolutely ridiculous, especially since Ted himself had said on multiple occasions that his relationship with Cody had run its course and he had fallen out of love with him. There had been absolutely no brainwashing involved at any point whatsoever.

Cody didn't even have the decency to answer her. He just glared at her with his hands behind his back like she was Satan and she rolled her eyes before going to turn her attention back to "Mary"; only the little bitch was gone. "Oh you have got to be kidding me!" she said in exasperation. She turned back to Cody and shook her head angrily. "You let her get away!"

He didn't even acknowledge that she had spoken to him at all. He just continued to glare at her and it was creeping her out more than it did usually. "Hey!" she said, snapping her fingers in an effort to get him to quit with the staring. "Freak! Say something!"

"Slut," he growled, his voice not even sounding like his own.

"What did you just call me?" She could hardly even believe it. Usually he didn't actually have the balls to say anything to her face. Then again, she was usually hanging off of Ted when the two of them encountered each other so he was usually just too busy staring at Ted like he wanted to drop to his knees and blow him right there no matter where they were.

"Slut," he repeated, taking another step towards her and making her take an involuntary step back. There was something horribly wrong with his eyes. They were so dark that they were almost black and they were practically burning holes right through her. "Conniving little whore. You stole my Teddy."

"Oh come on, not this again!" She threw up her hands and shook her head. She swallowed down her previous trepidation and stepped up right into his face. "Let me make this very clear to you. Teddy does not love you anymore. He does not want anymore to do with you. Teddy is happy with ME. Now I know that might be hard to understand because you look like a duck gone retarded, but that's the way it is. Learn, live it, get over it." She smirked as he scowled and shoulder checked him on her way towards the door. Since that matter was settled…

"Fucking cunt!" Cody snarled as he grabbed on to Maryse's hair with one hand and ripped her back so violently that she screamed in pain from it. "You stole him," he growled, his mouth pressed right up against her ear. "You stole my Teddy and made him think he doesn't love me." He bit down on her ear so hard that he drew blood and he began licking it up eagerly. "But I've got news for you honey. He does love me. He just has to realize it."

Maryse was officially terrified. She had to get the fuck away from him. He had gone absolutely insane. "Get OFF me!" She elbowed him in the gut and bolted for the door. She grabbed on to the handle and tried to twist it but it wouldn't budge. "Come on!" she moaned, ramming her shoulder into the door in a futile effort to break it down. "Open you fuck!" She glanced back at Cody from the corner of her eye and screamed. He had been holding an axe behind his back with his other hand and was now swinging it directly at her skull. She managed to duck just in time and the blade got stuck right in the door.

_He wants to kill me…_ Shrieking loudly she punched Cody between the legs and used all her strength to shove him away from the door. Her only hope was the axe. The room had no window and no other door to escape from. She had to get the axe and use it against him before he did that to her.

She grabbed on to the handle and began pulling at it desperately. At first it absolutely refused to budge but when she put her foot up on the door and yanked she managed to get it out, but ended up crashing to the ground and knocking the air out of herself in the process. She tried to ignore that sudden jarring and went to get back up on her feet when she got kicked right in the face by the heel of Cody's boot. Her nose broke instantly on impact and blood began spurting out of it like a geyser.

"Dirty little bitch," Cody growled, snatching the axe back out of her hands. "Steal my Teddy. Fucking show you."

"No no no," Maryse moaned, doing her best to back up and not choke on all the blood that was pouring out of her face. "Please leave me alone please-"

"He loves me," Cody growled, yanking her back to where he wanted her by her ankle. "He loves me. He don't love you. He loves me not you. He loves me-"

Maryse screeched and tried to kick at him but he easily caught her foot and twisted her lower leg before jumping knee first down on to it, breaking the bone in a very ugly manner. She let out a horrible scream but didn't get a chance to do dwell on the horrendous pain for very long. She was smacked across the face by Cody so she could stay awake long enough to see the axe coming down at her before the blade went into her neck, decapitating her with one swift swing.

…

"Maryse!" Ted yelled, pounding on the door as hard as he could. He had been following her but had somehow lost sight of her because he had gotten turned around somehow (it honestly felt like the hotel had changed on him on purpose just to fuck with him) but then he had heard her screaming and had managed to find the room it seemed to be coming from. Only problem was, he couldn't get in there at all. It was locked and wouldn't break down despite his best attempts.

"Maryse!" he yelled again, not liking how silent things had gotten. It just gave him a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Maryse!" He began throwing himself against the door with as much force as he could muster, getting more and more worried and frustrated when he still couldn't get in. "Damn it leave her alone! Let her-"

The door finally opened and Ted nearly crashed into a bloodstained Cody. "Teddy," Cody said, smiling and wrapping his arms around his former partner. "You're here."

"Cody?" Ted blinked in surprise. "What are you-" The rest of the question went unspoken as his eyes drifted over Cody's shoulder and went to Maryse's body. "Oh my god!" he exclaimed, pushing Cody away and stepping the rest of the way into the room. His girlfriend's body was laying there on the floor while her head rested all the way across the room, as if it had been kicked after being taken off. "Cody what happened? WHAT HAPPENED?"

Cody tilted his head to the side, as if confused by Ted's question. "Nothing happened Teddy."

"Nothing happened?" Ted shook his head and nearly threw up at the sight of his now dead girlfriend. It was common knowledge Maryse was more interested in his money than anything else but that didn't mean he didn't actually care about her. "Nothing happened? Cody, she's been DECAPITATED! You're covered in BLOOD!" He grabbed Cody by the arms and shook him as hard as he could. "What happened? Tell me what happened!"

Cody's eyes narrowed and that was when Ted noticed they were not right at all. They were way way too dark and filled with something he could not begin to identify. "I had to get rid of her," he said quite calmly and matter of factly. "She was poisoning you. I had to get rid of her to save you."

Ted felt his heart skip a very long beat at those words. "You…you killed her?" he said weakly. "You did this?"

Cody nodded. "I did. Just for you Teddy."

No…this was wrong. This was so totally wrong. Ted let go of Cody and stumbled back towards the door. He couldn't do this. This wasn't happening. This was a dream or a delusion or SOMETHING that wasn't real.

"Teddy?" Cody repeated. "Don't leave Teddy. I just got you back you can't leave again."

Ted couldn't respond. This wasn't Cody. Not totally. Cody wouldn't hurt a fly how could he do this? He grabbed on to the door knob and opened the door, only to come face to face with Lucy and a woman dressed in Eve's clothes. His eyes widened at the sight of the little girl tormenting them all and that proved to be his undoing. The woman took advantage of the situation, driving a knife directly into his throat before he even knew what was happening.

"Oh goody," Lucy said as she clapped her hands together and watched the woman yank the knife out so Ted could collapse to the floor and bleed to death on the carpet. "She works."

…

_**Oh goody, the new toy works.**_

**Marvelous! Simply marvelous!**

"Wha…" Cody blinked and stumbled back as he felt whatever the voices were leave his body. The last thing he really remembered was the voices accepting his plea for help. How he had gotten to this room and why he was covered in blood was a total mystery to him. "What hap-" He gasped as he finally caught sight of Ted's body on the floor. "NO!"

**Although she did take away our kill. That wasn't fair.**

_**No no, it wasn't fair at all. I think we should write in a complaint.**_

"NO NO NO!" Cody lunged forward and slid across the floor on his knees so he could gather up Ted's now lifeless body in his arms and hold him close. "No no no! Ted wake up! PLEASE wake up!"

"Ssssh, not him too," Lucy cooed at the woman, who looked ready to take Cody out as well. "Just watch. This will be amusing."

_**You've got good control over her.**_

**I must say I'm surprised.**

_**She's feral still. Confused, disoriented…Master are you sure you'll still have a hold of her once she fully becomes herself again.**_

"Must you both insist on talking when not asked to?" Lucy growled. That shut the voices right the hell up.

"Teddy wake up!" Cody yelled, shaking his ex-boyfriend as tears streamed down his face. It felt like someone had just ripped out his heart and run it over with a truck. "Teddy wake up! I need you please come back! Come back!"

"He can't come back," Lucy said gently, stepping forward and wiping away his tears. "Its not possible."

"No please you can do it!" Cody insisted. "You can do it please help me! Please…I can't live without him."

"I know." Lucy's eyes twinkled as she reached into the pocket of her dress and pulled out a pistol. "That's why I'm going to let you go be with him." She handed him the gun and nodded encouragingly. "Go on. He's waiting for you."

Cody accepted the pistol, just staring at it and feeling its heavy weight against his palm. A feeling of clarity overtook him and he knew that this was the right thing to do. He had to do this. He had to be with Ted. He closed his eyes and put the barrel of the gun in his mouth, picturing Ted's perfect face smiling at him one last time before pulling the trigger.


	16. The Lobby

Things were calm. Too calm. It should have put Jeff at ease but it didn't. He and the others had been sitting in the lobby for what felt like forever now and it had all been quiet. That should have been a good sign. Maybe this was all stopping and they would get to get out of there soon. That was what Jeff wanted to believe anyway. But in his heart he knew this was just a calm in the storm. It was only a matter of time before something came after them and he wasn't sure if they were going to be ready for it.

Chris seemed to sense what he was thinking and immediately pulled him over on to his lap to hug him. Neither one of them had to say a word. What was there to even say? They were trapped in a very unbelievable situation and there seemed to be absolutely no way out of it. That pretty much just spoke for itself.

"You know, you never struck me as the type for braids," Jay said as he and Matt watched Kelly put braid after braid in Beth's hair.

"I'm not," Beth replied shortly, definitely not thrilled with the new hairstyle she was being given. "But it's keeping her calm so I'm going with it." Indeed Kelly was significantly calmer than she had been before now that she had something to distract herself with.

"You know, I've always wanted my hair in braids," Matt said, flipping his dark mane around and making Jay look at him like he was crazy. "Hey Kel, you think you can do me once you're done with her?"

"Sure!" Kelly said brightly, making Beth have to fight real hard to not roll her eyes.

Chris snickered immaturely, which made Jeff turn to him and frown. "What?"

"Your brother wants Kelly to _do_ him," Chris answered.

Jeff shook his head. "Wow. That was completely immature." He looked away and then immediately got a picture of Matt and Kelly actually doing it inside of his head-and promptly began to laugh at it.

"Wow," Beth said dryly. "There is so much I could say right now but I'm not going to. It wouldn't do me any good now would it?"

"Nope," Matt replied because Chris and Jeff were too busy laughing to themselves. "They won't change no matter how hard you try to get them to. Believe me, I know."

Evan's lips twitched into a very small half smile before he looked over at Adam, who was pacing all around the room. As the minutes ticked by, almost everyone started trying to act as normally as possible and hope for the best. Adam was the exception. With every minute that went by, he actually started to get more and more paranoid. Everyone was trying to ignore it in hopes that he would knock it off by himself but that clearly wasn't about to happen. "Can you please sit down?" Evan asked as nicely as possible. "You're making me kind of motion sick over here."

Adam shook his head and gave Evan a dirty look. "No I can't sit down! Are you insane?"

"Well I'm sure he's not but I'm starting to think that you are," Chris replied, staring at his fellow blonde Canadian dubiously. "Really Copeland, you're making us all nervous by doing that."

"I'm making you nervous?" Uh oh. Adam's voice had that panicked edge to it which was never a good thing. "We're in a haunted hotel that wants to KILL us! Shouldn't THAT be making you nervous?"

"Well it is," Jeff said, speaking up before Chris could say anything and turn the situation into an argument. "But watching you walk around like a crazy person is kind of not helping."

Adam rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah, and sitting around and trying to pretend that everything is okay is much better?" He snorted loudly. "You're letting your guards down which is probably what the evil bitches running this place want so they can come in and kill-"

"Adam!" Matt growled as Kelly whimpered and shielded herself behind Beth. "That is ENOUGH!"

Adam fell silent. He was obviously dying to say something but with both Matt and Beth ready to tear his head off now that he had scared Kelly to death all over again, he wasn't about to dare risk it.

"Hey guys, when you're done teaming up on my boyfriend, you might want to take a look at this."

All eyes turned to Randy, who was now carrying a newspaper out from behind the receptionists desk. "What are you doing with all that?" Kelly asked as he set it down on the table in the center of the room.

"Investigating," Randy replied. He pointed at the paper and motioned for everyone to gather around. "This is from the day the hotel opened. Look at the date and then look at the picture and caption under it."

They all looked and all their eyes widened in shock. "Oh fuck," Jeff said under his breath. The date of the newspaper was Friday, October 13th, 1906 and the picture below the headline showed an old man and a little girl standing outside of the hotel. The little girl's name was Mary Keisner and she was six years old. The old man's name was Herman Keisner and he was seventy nine years old the day the picture was taken.

"That's the man that greeted us when we got here!" Kelly exclaimed, looking at all of them with wide doe eyes. "Oh my God, he was even older than I thought!"

Adam openly slapped his forehead and groaned at her. "There was no way he could have actually been alive you twit! He would have had to been over a hundred and eighty years old! There's no way-"

"Well given everything that's happened, let's not say there's _no_ way it could have been possible," Jay interrupted. "But it is a lot more unlikely…" He shook his head and tapped the old man's picture. "What if he was a ghost? I mean given the situation that's the most logical explanation."

"But we found his body babe," Matt reminded him. "Remember?"

"What if that was like…a scare tactic or something?" Jay countered. "We found his "body" right before we all started to get picked off. Maybe that was like an omen or something."

They all looked at each other, unable to deny such a possibility. "What about the little girl?" Jeff asked, turning his attention to her picture. "We saw her when we found Layla's body but according to this she should be over a hundred years old-"

"Well according to Connor she's a ghost, so she had to have died not too long after this picture was taken," Chris pointed out. "But here's the thing that worries me: where's Lucy? Why isn't she in the picture? What the hell is her deal?"

Nobody had an answer to that one. "Are there any more papers?" Evan asked Randy.

Randy shook his head. "No. I've been looking but that's the only I've been able to find."

Jeff studied the picture some more before shrugging. "At least this is something-" He stopped as Adam snorted loudly. "What?" he said, taking a deep breath in order to help control his temper better.

"At least this is something?" Adam shook his head. "Jeff this isn't anything! This is CRAP!"

Randy groaned as Adam once again began his pacing. "Adam come on." He grabbed the older man by his waist and pulled him close. "Just stop."

Adam stopped, but only in the sense that his body stopped moving. His mind was still completely getting away from him though. "You know, shit was fine before Connor ran off and then started claiming he saw ghosts," he said. "The idiot probably woke this shit up."

"Dude just stop," Jeff ordered. "You don't even know that. This shit was probably already awake and just waiting for the first unlucky bastards to walk in."

"Yeah really," Chris agreed.

"You don't know THAT though!" Adam shot back. "He was the one seeing this shit before anyone else did!"

"That don't mean he's a part of it though," Evan pointed out. "He's like a _child_, that might be why he could see it all before we could! He's even more sensitive to this kind of shit."

"Yeah really," Beth said with a nod. "If we had seen the ghosts first we would have denied the very possibility of them being real. But since _he_ saw them first and he don't think like we do, he believed them to be real."

"And they are," Kelly said, hugging Beth tightly. "They're real and I HATE them! I HATE them!" She let go of Beth again and stared up at the ceiling. "You hear that? I HATE YOU! You let us LEAVE right NOW you MEANIE!"

Eight pairs of eyes all stared at her incredulously. Had she really thought that was going to work? "Maybe we should find like an ax or a chainsaw or something," Matt said once they had recovered from what Kelly had said. "Maybe we can make our own door-"

The lights went off before he could finish his sentence and they all yelled in surprise. Jeff reached out and clung to Chris on instinct. "What the hell is going on?" Kelly moaned. "Make it stop!"

"We would if we could toots!" Randy shot back.

"Is there a fuse box or anything?" Jay asked. "We-" He suddenly screamed in pain and Jeff heard this horrible growling noise followed by a loud crash.

"JASON!" Matt yelled. "JASON!"

"What is going on?" Kelly shrieked as the entire situation turned into a complete state of panic. Nobody could see but they could hear Jay screaming and a horrible snarling and growling and it was freaking them out. They were like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to get their hands on Jay and get him away from whatever monster there was now-except they were already too late. The lights came on just seconds later and they collectively screamed as they saw Sandy Claws standing over Jay (whose throat had been ripped out), blood dripping from his mouth and a smile on his face.

"Death to ALL infidels," he growled before taking off, inexplicably leaving the rest of them there to just stand in shock and horror.


	17. A Calm in the Storm?

Connor woke up alone and didn't immediately remember everything that had transpired before he passed out. "Daddy?" he called out, looking around the unfamiliar room fearfully. It was dark in here and he didn't like it. He didn't like it one little bit. "Daddy where are you? Da-" He stopped when everything came rushing back to him. Sandy Claws showing his big ugly face, him getting chased all around the hotel, Lucy taking his blood…it all came back so fast that he bit down on his lower lip hard enough to make himself bleed in order to keep himself from crying again. He was already tired and scared enough as it was; crying even more would just make it worse. "Daddy?" he called out again, staying on the bed because he was too scared to get up off it. "Coopy?"

No answer. Nobody was even close to finding him. He was all alone and it got even harder to resist the urge to cry. He began rubbing his eyes furiously, a few tears still escaping despite his best attempts to contain them. This wasn't fair. Why was all of this happening? He didn't understand it and when it came down to it, he really didn't want to. He just wanted to get out of there. He very slowly began to climb off the bed but stopped when he thought he heard a sound. His heart thudded inside of his chest and his breathing was short and shallow. After several seconds of silence he started to think that it was just his mind playing tricks on him but then he heard it again. It was nothing more than a creaking floorboard but it was enough to yank the covers up over his head so he could hide under them. He failed to realize that even under the covers the lump of his body could still be seen; he went with the child's philosophy of if he couldn't see the scary things, they couldn't see him. Another favorite of his was if he turned on the light then the scary things couldn't come in because the light was bad for them but he was too scared to get up and go turn on the lights. The bad thing might come in and get him before he could get there and then he would be fucked.

The door opened and he bit back a whimper, willing whatever had come in to just go away. His willpower didn't do a lick of good though. The blanket was grabbed and pulled down out of the way so he could become face to face with Mary, who was looking at him with a puzzled expression on her face. "What are you doing under there?" she asked.

"Hiding," he replied.

"Hiding from what?"

"Scary things."

"Oh." She stared at him for a few seconds. "Can I hide with you?"

He eyed her warily. He didn't trust her. Sure she had seemed nice when he had first met her but then he had met Lucy and his opinion of both twins just all went to hell. "Where's the other one?" he asked slowly.

"You mean Lucy?" Mary began wringing her hands together as she asked for that clarification. Connor frowned a bit, faintly remembering that his mother used to do the exact same thing whenever she got nervous or upset.

"Yeah," he confirmed. "Where is she? Where's my daddy and Coopy? Where's Nattie and Tiffany? Why haven't they found me yet?"

Mary looked really apprehensive about answering those questions. "I don't know where they are," she said slowly. "But I think they haven't found you yet because Lucy wants to keep you all apart."

"Why?" Connor asked, slamming his fist down on bed in frustration. "Why is she doing this? We didn't do anything to her! You tell her to stop being mean to us right now!"

"She won't listen to me," Mary said meekly. "She don't listen to anyone she's crazy and evil. She controls the entire hotel. It does what she says."

Connor frowned. "How can a hotel do what she says? Is it alive?"

"I don't know. Maybe. It didn't use to be. She changed it though and made it all bad." She began wringing her hands together even more and if she wasn't a ghost Connor would have started getting worried about her ripping her own fingers right off. "She made it bad. She made it bad I don't like that she made it bad."

"So make her stop it," Connor said impatiently. "Make her stop and tell her to let us go."

"I can't!" Mary shrieked, making Connor jump back in fright. "I can't make her do anything! She won't listen to me, don't you understand that?" She didn't wait for him to answer. She just hugged herself tightly and bawled her eyes out, making Connor shift around uncomfortably. He wasn't good with people that cried. They just made him feel all weird and stuff. "I have to go find Daddy and Coopy," he said, getting off the bed and heading for the door. "I'm sorry you're sad but I gotta go before the scary girl and the hotel do something bad to them." He reached for the doorknob but stopped to look back at the crying ghost for a bit longer. She really did seem to be really really sad and he almost went back over there to make her feel better because her sadness was contagious but he changed his mind and went ahead and left. She wasn't being useful and trying to make this all stop so he was just going to leave her there. Finding James and Cooper were more important to him anyway.

…

Bryan held on to Melina's hand as they sat together on the bed. They had ran blindly after John's death, getting all turned around in their state of panic. Finally they had stopped and taken refuge in a bedroom so they could try to figure out what to do next. His first thought was to find the othes but at this point he didn't even know if anyone else was alive. And besides from that, Melina was too much of a mess to really do much of anything. John's death was hitting her very hard and all she could really do was sit and cry.

"Thanks," she said as he handed her yet another tissue. She already had a small pile of used ones by her side that needed thrown away.

"No problem." He let go of her hand so he could wrap his arm around her trembling frame. He was really feeling terrible at the moment, given how much he had fought for them to go searching for Eve in the first place. He hadn't wanted to accept a lost cause when it had been slapping him in the face and he had stupidly insisted on doing what he had thought was the right thing to do. And look where that had gotten him. John and Ron were dead and he and Melina were lost and lone and just lambs in a slaughterhouse. Of course, there was always a possibility that all of this would have happened anyway if they hadn't gone to look for Eve. The thing was though, he was never going to know and that was eating him alive.

"Bryan?" Melina wiped her eyes and sniffled loudly.

"Yeah?"

"We're not going to die, right?"

He didn't know what to say to that at first. He knew what the honest answer to that question was and he knew what she was probably looking to hear. "Of course not," he finally said. "We'll be fine." They both knew he was lying through his teeth but it was okay. It was the only thing that was remotely okay about this entire situation.

"Alright." Melina took a deep breath in order to try to get a hold of herself. "We should try to find the others."

"Yeah," Bryan agreed. "We should."

Neither of them made any effort to get up though. Instead their eyes fell to the mini bar that was in the room and they lingered there, feeling the call of the alcohol getting to them.

"Tequila first?" she finally asked.

"Sure, sounds good to me." If they were going to die they might as well just die buzzed. At least they would feel slightly better about the situation.

…

"I think I'm going to be sick."

"Again?" Michelle fought her upchuck reflex as she and Mike continued to examine the mess they had found. They had lost track of Ted and Maryse but now that they had found them, they were wishing they hadn't. Maryse had been decapitated, Ted had been stabbed in the throat and Cody was also there, dead from a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

"Can we go now?" Mike asked impatiently. "I can't look at this anymore it's too disgusting."

She couldn't agree more yet she couldn't tear her eyes away from the scene. It was just such a fucking bloodbath that she had to keep looking at it. Finally Mike just grabbed her by the wrist and yanked her out of the room, making her yelp because he damn well about pulled something out of its socket. "Would you watch it you oaf?" she asked, angrily hitting him with her free hand.

"Well maybe you should have moved quicker," he snapped. "You were just standing there like you were looking at a science project or something."

"I-"

"They were long dead before we got there. Staring at them like freaks isn't going to change that."

"Well I knew _that_," she said with a glare. "I'm not fucking retarded." She hit him one more time and then yanked herself out of his grasp. "God you're such a fucking asshole."

"Tell me something I don't know," he replied. He saw the rather miffed look on her face and his expression almost seemed to soften for just a fraction of a second. "Look, I'm an asshole and you're a bitch. We both know this and there's no point in dwelling on it. We've got shit to do."

She still wasn't exactly thrilled with him because of the whole manhandling thing but she knew he was right. "We gotta kill that Lucy bitch and get the fuck out of here."

"Yeah," Mike said, looking around nervously. "But-"

"Oh great. I hate that word in these kinds of situations."

He gave her an incredulous look. "You've been in other situations like this before?"

"What?" she said in confusion. "No-"

"But you said-"

"Don't nitpick my word choice. Seriously, just don't. You're not a total idiot, you knew how I meant that. Now what has gone through your pea sized brain to make you say but?"

He glared at her for the brain comment before answering that question. "I know we all think the badness is coming from Lucy but what if it's not? Or what if it's just not her? What if like…this whole hotel is like infected and haunted or whatnot?"

_Of all the times for him to actually have a point…_ Michelle eyed the hallway they were walking down warily. The hair on the back of her neck was actually starting to stand up she was getting the willies so bad. "Great," she said sarcastically. "You've officially freaked me even more the fuck out. Thanks a lot Miz."

"No problem darling," Mike said cheekily. They both jumped when they heard a loud creaking noise. "Um…" Mike grabbed on to Michelle, getting ready to use her as a human shield if need be. "I think maybe we should go find Mark or Glenn. The probably have already figured out what the fuck is up with this place."

Michelle wasn't so sure about that. Yeah okay so they knew about shit most people didn't but that didn't mean they knew anything about their current situation or even had a way to make it all stop if they did know about it. Then again, going back to them sounded like a hell of a better idea than just running around with Mike. At least Glenn and Mark would provide some kind of protection; Mike was such a fucking pussy he would throw her to the wolves the first chance he got. "Fine," she agreed. "Let's-" Something grabbed her arms from behind and she screamed, struggling as hard as she could to get her freedom back. "MIKE!"

"Hey! What the fuck?" Mike had been grabbed too and while Michelle couldn't see who the hell had her, she sure as hell could see Mike's abductors. There were three of them, all very large and wearing nice looking suits. One though had a glass bottle literally sticking out of his skull and the other two had large slits across their throats, which caused their heads to about roll off every time they moved a certain way.

"Come come come," one of the men said, smiling at them and revealing his teeth to be yellow and jagged. It was so revolting that Michelle just about got sick at the sight of them. "No need to scream my darlings. We just want you to see it. This is very important you can't miss it."

"Miss what?" Mike snapped as he tried to fight his way free. "Fuck! Let me go you assholes!"

None of the men looked fazed by Mike's words. They just carried him off and the ones that had Michelle quickly followed them. "Wait wait wait!" Michelle said, still trying to fight her own way free. "Where are you taking us?"

"To the party," one of them answered. "You can't miss this. It's going to be a BLOODY good time!" He laughed at his own words and Michelle felt her stomach turn unpleasantly. This was not good. This was not good at all.

…

Beth and Chris put a blanket they had found in a closet over Jay's body after they had moved it as much out of sight as they could. It was the least they could do although it wasn't going to do much for anyone that was in the room-especially Matt and Adam. They had to be practically ripped away from Jay's body because they just did not want to let him go. Jeff and Randy were trying to console them as best as they could but they weren't having much success. Adam was losing his shit all together while Matt just sat there, not moving or saying a word to anybody. Some tears were still escaping his eyes but he didn't even try to wipe them away; Jeff had been doing it for him for several minutes now.

"You know what I think?" Chris said quietly as they made sure Jay was properly covered.

"What ?" Beth asked.

"I think we need like an axe or a chainsaw to make a door out of here," he said, glancing around at the others. Jeff had Matt in his arms, cuddling him as much as he possibly could. Randy was trying to do the same thing with Adam but the blonde was too agitated to allow it. Kelly and Evan were sitting together, huddling close and just trying to stay out of the way. "Or jump through a window and hope it won't have time to chop us in half like it did Kofi."

Beth chuckled humorlessly. "At this point, I think that right there is the best case scenario for us. At least it would be quick."

Chris twitched, fighting his mind so it wouldn't go there. He couldn't let himself think like that. He had to cling to some kind of hope, no matter how futile it was.

"Is nobody going to say it?" Adam asked, helping to distract Chris from the dark thoughts Beth had put into him. "Am I going to have to be the one that states the obvious again?"

A long silence followed that question. "…Looks like," Evan finally said.

Adam rolled his eyes. "Didn't you hear what that monster said? "Death to all infidels?" Don't that set off any red flags to you guys?"

They all exchanged confused looks which only made him more upset. "Infidels you idiots! Infidels! Now who do we know goes around saying that word all the fucking time?"

Chris's eyes widened as they realized the train of thought he was on. "Adam wait-"

"Don't tell me to wait," Adam growled, looking to attack Chris for daring to speak up. "Don't you fucking tell me to wait you son of a bitch. Not now. Not after what's happened."

"But Adam, what you're getting at doesn't make sense," Evan said, shrinking back when Adam's glare switched over to him. "We all saw how scared to death Connor was of that thing. I mean, it went after him first!"

"It was a ruse then," Adam stated defiantly. "It was a ruse to fucking trick us."

Randy shook his head. He looked just freaked out by all the shit his boyfriend kept saying. "Adam stop," he pleaded. "Come on, you're being paranoid."

Adam looked hurt that Randy was not immediately jumping in and joining his side but he masked it as best as he could. "No I'm not," he claimed defiantly. "I'm fucking seeing things clear as a mother fucker. I know what I have to do."

"And what's that?" Jeff asked, clearly not liking where this was about to go. Chris couldn't blame him because he felt the exact same way.

"I eliminate the problem. I kill Connor."

Now that one was met by a long and shocked silence. Nobody could believe he said it at first. It was the most insane thing they ever heard. The Lawsons were completely and utterly nuts. You did not fuck with them because they would fuck your shit up ten times as bad. "You've lost your mind," Chris finally said. "You've lost your fucking mind do you realize that is suicide? If Connor don't kill you first James and Cooper sure as hell will."

"They'll never know," Adam said. "They'll never know because they'll either get killed by all this or they'll think Lucy or Sandy Claws or something else in this place did it. I'm in the clear."

"No," Randy said, reaching out to grab Adam before he could run off. "I'm not letting you do that. You're going to get yourself-" The lights went out a again, making Kelly shriek loudly. Everyone else tensed up, terrified of Sandy Claws popping back in to get them once more. Thankfully that didn't happen. Three seconds later the lights came back on and there was no Sandy Claws-but also no Adam.

He had vanished right into thin air.


	18. Revelations

**A/N: I'd just like to quickly thank everyone for their reviews. I really really do appreciate them. And I would also just like to say that I know a lot of you are pulling for certain people to survive but um…I cannot make any guarantees. I probably should have put that little disclaimer up in the very beginning but eh, I'll do it now. All the usual favorites have just as much of a chance as dying as anyone else because I'm evil like that. Just wanted to put that out there as a warning…**

…

Cooper had completely lost track of time. His cell phone was back in his room, nobody else's cell phone would even turn on anymore and his, Phil's and Glenn's watches had all mysteriously stopped, which just served to completely weird him out even more. Of course, that was relatively normal compared to some of the shit that had been going on in this place and that didn't concern him nearly as much as the fact that they still hadn't found Connor. With every passing second more and more convinced this entire place was fucking with them and was somehow deliberately keeping them from finding Connor. And it just made him so beyond pissed off that he wanted to scream and tear the entire place apart. Connor was his little brother, only he was allowed to fuck with him. But as much as he wanted to go off, he forced himself to keep himself together. James was already freaking out enough for everyone and him joining in was not going to help anything.

"Lawson you need to breathe," Mark said as he tried his very best to reel James back from going off the deep end once again. He had been managing it before somehow but this time it seemed like his luck was going to run out sooner rather than later. "You can't-"

"I'm am fucking breathing!" James snarled. He was actually hyperventilating but that was not a detail that anyone really wanted to argue with him about. "Don't tell me to fucking breathe! I got that shit covered!"

Mark put up his hands and took a step back. "Lawson-"

James wasn't even about to listen. He took off once again, forcing everyone to run after him so they wouldn't lose him. "CONNOR?" His voice sounded so hoarse that it made Cooper cringe. He was going to lose it soon if he kept all the yelling up. "CONNOR?" He looked around wildly, just completely unhinged from frustration and fear. "God damn it!" He coughed violently, trying to clear the hoarseness in his throat.

Phil shook his head and pulled Glenn back a bit so they could whisper without being overheard. "What if Connor's dead and we're just chasing a ghost here?" he asked.

Glenn gave his boyfriend a stern look. "Phil, I love you but that's not a question you need to be asking right-"

"Not right now? You're seriously telling me not right now?" Phil shook his head in disbelief. "There's not going to be a _good_ time to bring it up so why not now?" He glanced fearfully at James (who wasn't even paying attention) before going on. "Look, I'm not saying I want him to be dead. I'm just saying that it needs to be taken as the most likely scenario and we shouldn't all be running around here chasing our tails instead of trying to figure out a way out of this mess."

Glenn rubbed the top of his bald head and sighed heavily. "I know I know. But I'm not saying that shit to James and I'm not letting you do it either. That's a sure fire way of getting you killed."

"And what about saying it in front of me?" Cooper asked, really REALLY not pleased with either one of them.

Strangely enough, neither of them acted like they heard him at all. He went to go say something again but he decided to just say to hell with it and turn his attention to James. Mark was keeping his distance from him so he didn't get his head taken off again and it was Natalya and Tiffany trying to do their best to comfort him. It wasn't really working that well; Cooper knew damn well James was fearing the absolute worse and how could he not right now? Cooper knew he was fearing it. He was trying to block it out because the thought of his brother being dead was just something he could not reasonably handle. As absolutely annoying as Connor was, Cooper loved the little shit to pieces and if he died, a huge part of him and James would go with him.

"Uncle James please…" Natalya could barely even talk. She was forcing eye contact with James and his eyes were even scaring her, which was not something that could be easily done. "We'll find him. I know you're scared and paranoid yet but you would feel it if he was truly gone."

James just stared at her, not even able to say a word.

"I don't think you're getting through to him," Tiffany said with a wince.

"I know. Cooper why don't-" Natalya stopped and her eyes just about popped out of her head. "Cooper?"

"Present!" Cooper said, going over there and standing right next to her. "Here let me-"

"Cooper?" Nattie's voice had a sharp edge of hysteria now. "Cooper? Cooper Benjamin this is not funny!"

Cooper stared at her like she was absolutely insane. "Nat, I'm right here!" He waved his hands right in front of her face. "Helloooooo! Did you go blind or something? I'm RIGHT here!"

"Oh no," Tiffany groaned. "Oh no no no…"

"Is he hiding back there with you idiots?" Mark asked Glenn and Phil gruffly.

"No," Glenn replied as Phil looked around. "We thought he was up there with James…"

"Guys is this NOT funny!" Cooper said, his chest tightening up in a panic. He was yelling at them and they didn't even hear or see him? What the HELL was going on? "I'm right here!" He jumped up and down and waved his arms like a total idiot just to prove his point. "Can't you see me? I'm here!"

"Cooper…" If James had not been over the edge before, he certainly was now. "COOPER!"

"Oh God," Cooper groaned. He didn't know what the fuck was going on and his fear for Connor's safety was switching toward fear for himself. "Dad! I'm RIGHT HERE!" He took a step towards James but before he could physically touch his father he felt this weird yanking sensation and then suddenly he was in a different hallway that only had a couple of the light bulbs working (and not very well at that). "Shit!" He looked around, trying to see if he recognized where he was at now. "Dad? Nattie? Connor?" He looked around, trying to hide the fear that was growing rapidly inside of him. _Just fucking keep your head,_ he told himself. _Fucking don't lose your shit-_

BANG! It sounded like a gunshot just went off and Cooper jumped about a foot in the air. "Fuck!" He couldn't see what it was that had made the noise and he had to literally try to force his heart rate to go back to normal. _Don't fucking panic,_ he reminded himself as he tried to figure out whether he would be safer staying put or trying to find the others. _That's how a shit load of people die in horror movies. They fucking freak out and then they end up idiotically running into their own deaths. You're too smart for that so don't sink to their idiotic level._

"Coopy? Coopy?"

Cooper's body froze but his head turned every which way it could wildly. "Connor?" Hope rose so sharply in him that it felt like he was flying. "Connor is that you?"

"Coopy where are you? I'm scared Coopy I can't see you! I can't see you where are you?"

"Just stay there!" Cooper ordered as he began running in the direction that Connor's voice was coming from. "I'm coming just don't move!"

"Hurry Coopy!" Connor's was cracking from fear. "Hurry hurry hurry before Sandy Claws comes back!"

Cooper growled at the thought of that thing coming after his brother and forced himself to run faster, nearly tripping over his feet and toppling face first on the carpeted floor. He managed to catch himself at the last minute and kept running, turning the corner and sprinting up the staircase in front of him as fast as he could. "Connor?"

"Cooper!" Connor's voice was changing and it wasn't just from fear; it was just sounding less and less like him by the second. "Cooper where are you? It hurts Cooper…"

Cooper stopped in his tracks. He was completely thrown off by the change. "Connor?" He was starting to have this horrible horrible feeling that he had been tricked somehow. "Where are you?"

At first there was nothing. All Cooper could hear was his rapid breathing and feel his heart pounding inside of his chest. But then a bloodied, half naked figure began crawling towards him and he could do nothing but stare at it in horror. This couldn't be…no, there was no way…

"It hurts Cooper," the figure whimpered softly. With every inch it dragged itself it was just leaving this huge trail of blood behind. "Where were you Cooper? Why didn't you help me?" The figure looked up at him and it was none other than Joie. "You said you loved me…"

Cooper's breath caught in his throat and he stared at his dead lover with wide eyes and an open mouth. It felt like he had just gotten hit in the stomach with a sledgehammer. _I'm dreaming,_ he thought desperately. _I'm fucking dreaming. This is just another fucking nightmare._ He pinched himself really hard in order to prove it but it failed. This wasn't a nightmare. This shit was fucking real.

"You said you loved me," Joie repeated. He grabbed on to Cooper's clothes and began using them to pull himself up. "You said you loved me but you let me die. You didn't protect me like you promised. You _lied_ to me."

Cooper shook his head in denial. He was trying to speak the denial out loud but his voice wouldn't work. It had left him completely and all that escaped his dry mouth was an incomprehensible croak.

While Joie's face was to bruised and bloody and mangled to have any kind of readable expression on it, he definitely was not happy with Cooper's answer to him and he shoved Cooper back as hard as he could making him lose his balance and fall violently down the stairs. Cooper made one attempt to try to catch himself and stop his fell but he heard something crack in his wrist and that put an end of that. He tumbled all the way back down the stairs, banging the back of his head several times before landing in an unconscious heap at the bottom of the staircase.

…

"Let go of me!" Michelle was trying to once again get away from her captors and was once again completely failing. After being dragged off, she and Mike had been temporarily separated so they could be fitted for their "outfits". The guys who had taken them were beyond serious about this whole party thing and had dressed her up in this sparkly blue knee length dress with gigantic pain in the ass blue sparkly high heels and light blue silk gloves. They had even held her down and curled her hair and did her make-up. She felt completely and utterly ridiculous but of course her objections weren't being listened to at all. They just picked her up when she started dragging her feet and carried her into the ballroom, which was just absolutely packed with people. Judging from all the ripped out throats and missing body parts, they were all long dead and just hadn't realized it yet.

"Here, have some hour d'oeuvres," one of the men said as he snagged some from one of the people carrying around the trays of them.

"No way," she automatically refused. The hour d'oeuvres were literally all gray and slimy and she wanted absolutely nothing to do with it.

The man's eyes narrowed and he grabbed her jaw roughly. "I said have some!" He put bone crushing pressure on her jaw until she finally had no choice but to open her mouth. Once it was open he shoved them into her mouth and then put his hand over it so she couldn't just spit it back out. "Chew and swallow it," he growled. "Eat it or you don't breathe."

She was tempted to give him a good kick to the groin but fear of the consequences were what put the kibosh on that plan. So, very VERY reluctantly, she began to hesitantly chew on whatever it was that was in her mouth. Whatever it was it was beyond disgusting; the instant she bit into it, it practically exploded in her mouth, releasing a putrid and sour juice that made her gag violently. But since the guy wouldn't let go of her mouth, she had to force herself to continue chewing as fast as she could and swallow it.

"Good girl." The guy let her go and motioned for his friends to take her up to the stage, where Mike was already sitting at the piano that was up there. "They fed you the eyeballs too?" he asked, giving her a surprisingly sympathetic look.

Her eyes just about popped out of her head. "Eyeballs?"

"Yeah. I asked one of the women down there and she told me they were eyeballs."

Bile instantly rose up in her throat and she doubled over and puked all over the floor. She could hear several people gasping out in the crowd and Mike's groan of disgust but she didn't give a shit. She just kept heaving until there was nothing left in her stomach. "Fuck…" She slowly stood back up, nearly blinded by the light that was switched on to shine on her. "Mike?" She put her hand up to try to block out the light. "What the fuck is going on?"

"You're asking the wrong person," Mike replied. He had a spotlight on him too and for once he wasn't basking in it. He looked ready to get up and run for the hills at any split second. "I don't know what the fuck is going on."

Well that was just completely not helpful. Michelle began backing up, struggling to see under the bright hot light. All the faces were a blur but she could still feel their eyes on her. "Sing!" the shouted. "Sing!"

_Oh hell no…_Michelle kept backing away and also started shaking her head. She was not about to sing. She didn't care what these people thought or wanted; that shit wasn't going to happen.

"Sing! Sing! Sing!" Every time the crowd let out that chant it got more and more demanding. "Sing! Sing! Sing!"

"Maybe you should start singing," Mike said slowly.

"Fuck that."

"No, fuck you! I don't want to die in a mob because you didn't feel like entertaining them."

"SING! SING! SING!"

CRASH!

Michelle and Mike both screamed as the chandelier above the crowd exploded and sent glass flying everywhere. At the same time, the dogs that killed Dolph earlier came running in and attacking anyone in their paths. "Run!" Michelle yelled as she kicked off the heels so she could move faster. "Mike-ACKK!" A dog pounced on her from the side, sending her crashing to the ground. It sank its sharp teeth into her shoulder, ripping at her flesh and making her scream in pain as she tried her best to keep it from ripping out her throat.

"HEY!" Mike picked up the bench he had been previously sitting on and whacked the dog in the face as hard as he could. The dog yelped and went down and while keeping one hand on the bench just in chase, he used the other hand to help Michelle up. "Why did I just play the hero?"

"I don't know but I'm glad you did." Michelle felt woozy as fuck but she was trying to push that aside. "I say we get the hell out of here."

"Sounds like a fuck of a good plan to me."

…

Door after door was opened but James was too much in a state of panic to properly look through every single room. The others were all saying things to him but it was all gibberish to him. Meaningless fucking gibberish. Both of his sons were missing now and he was utterly terrified for them and absolutely enraged on top of it. There were very few people he even gave a damn about the and two of them were taken from him. He wanted to just start tearing people apart limb from limb until he got them back but he couldn't even do that. He was like an angry dog stuck in a too small kennel and a chain around his neck on top of it.

He opened yet another door and _finally _saw something that he could get at. It was the caretaker that had greeted them all when they first arrived. "You!" James didn't even begin to think about the fact that Matt and Jay had found this guy's body right before all the madness started. He just charged like a raging gorilla and attempted to grab the startled old man by the throat. His hands went right through him though, which just pissed him off even more. "Mother fucker!"

"Oh dear…" The old man took a step back and looked between James and the others, who had all come in right after Jams. "You all look so tired. Would you like me to go get you some tea?"

James shook his head in disbelief. "Tea?" Was this guy out of his mind? "Tea? Are you fucking kidding me?"

Tiffany winced. "James-"

"I want my boys!" James growled, clenching his fists tightly at his sides. "I want my boys back and I want them back NOW!" He didn't have anyone to hit so he would shamelessly throw a tantrum until he either got them back or he got someone that he could beat into giving them back.

The old man winced and shook his head apologetically. "I'm sorry, I don't know there they are. I don't know where anyone is. I'm not allowed…" He stopped and looked around fearfully. "You should really go."

"We're not going anywhere," Mark said, grabbing James and pulling him back so he could be face to face with the caretaker. "You're going to tell us what's going on and you're going to tell us right now."

The old man shook his head. "I can't-"

"Oh you will. Because if you don't, I'm going to use my wonderful knowledge of the black arts to make corporeal and then let James here torture you." He raised his eyebrows as the old man clearly showed his fear. "Feel like talking now?"

The old man nodded reluctantly.

"Good. What's your name?"

"Herman Keisner."

"When did you die?"

"March of 1907."

"What is going on here?" Natalya asked before could get to the next question. "What are Mary and Lucy? What is going on? Why is it happening?"

Phil nodded. "What she said but with a threat at the end of it."

Herman looked at all of them before letting out a very shaky breath. He obviously didn't want to tell this story but it was even more obvious he wasn't really getting a choice. "My daughter Samantha died giving birth to Mary and Lucy and I raised them myself. They were normal girls and we were happy. So so happy. But then when they were three, they were hit with the fever. Lucy died and Mary barely survived but went blind in the process. It broke my heart because I not only buried one grandchild but one was just a shell of her former self. She couldn't see so she really couldn't play and even if she could she wouldn't have. She lost her other half when Lucy died and there was no going back from that. She didn't talk, she didn't smile, she didn't eat or drink unless forced…"

James shook his head. This was all very sad and all but he didn't really give a shit about this. He started to say just that but Mark kicked his shin and got him to shut up with a glare.

"I took this job here in hopes that a fresh start would make everything better," Herman went on, not noticing the exchange between Mark and James. "I wanted everything to be like it was. At first though, there was no change. But after a couple of weeks, Mary started claiming Lucy would visit her at night and talk to her. I thought she was having dreams and stuff but then one day, she came down the stairs and claimed that not only could she see again, but Lucy was inside of her. If Lucy couldn't have her own body then Mary fulfilled her duties as a good sister and was letting Lucy share. And that's…that's when it started."

"Do you really think it was Lucy?" Phil asked gently.

Herman shook his head. "No. With everything that started happening-" he stopped to rub his wrinkled temples "-it was little things at first. But it all just escalated so fast. At first I didn't know what was going on. People were disappearing and dying all around me but I didn't know the cause. Then I caught Lucy in the act. She had taken over my Mary and gave her those dark eyes…those demon eyes…"

"Demonic possession," Mark muttered under his breath. 'What a bitch."

Herman nodded in agreement. "I managed to do my research behind her back. What posed as Lucy is a fear demon. That's why its so powerful. It's been feeding on every ounce of fear its caused for the past century and its feeding on all of you right now. I tried to make it stop by doing an exorcism but Mary and I both died. I got Mary out but she can't rest in peace. Not while the demon continues to use her body and pose as her sister." The old man sighed sadly. "She still believes its Lucy. The moments I'm allowed to be around her I can't convince her otherwise. I-"

A loud scream cut Herman off and everyone looked towards the door. "That sounded like Eve," Tiffany said with a gasp. "You think-" Her sentence went unfinished as Mark and Glenn took off and Nattie and Phil after them.

Herman turned even paler than he already was. "Things are not always what they seem," he told James and Tiffany. "What you think is a friend is really a foe…" On that creepy note he disappeared into thin air.

"Well…shit," Tiffany said out loud.

James nodded and grabbed her arm before going out the room. That little cryptic warning had given him a very bad feeling. "Mark! Mark get back here!"

…

Mark heard James but he could see Eve up ahead, curled up in a ball on the floor screaming her head off. "Hey!" He reached down to grab her in order to calm her down. "It's Mark. It's Mark, nobody ain't gonna hurt you-" The instant he touched her she snarled and he felt something go into his stomach, slicing through his organs and twisting to really cut them up. His eyes widened and he looked down at the weapon (which was a rather large knife) before looking into her eyes-and she wasn't Eve at all.

_Oh no…_

Caroline Lawson smirked and bit at Mark's lower lip as she got up to her feet, absolutely delighted with what she had just done. "Honey, I'm home."


	19. Useless, Helpless and Reckless

_The first breath of air that filled Caroline's lungs was a complete shock to her system. All she could literally do was lay there and gasp, unable to move, speak or think clearly. Her vision was blurry and everything around her sounded muffled. Where was she? She was laying on something soft. How did she get there? She couldn't think clear enough to figure it out. Her heart was pounding inside of her chest but it definitely wasn't from fear. It was more from adrenaline. What the hell was going on? A heart beat…she hadn't had one of those in…how long? She couldn't remember. Her brain was still too foggy to do so._

_It felt like it took eternity but the fog around her brain finally did start to clear up. As it cleared up, her eyesight and hearing cleared up as well and she could hear the sound of a little girl's voice and realized she was staring up at a ceiling. She tried to speak but all that really came out of her mouth was a loud groan. She tried to sit up but her head started to spin and it felt like she was about to throw up._

"_Easy now," the little girl said. "Don't-"_

_Caroline wasn't even listening. She just rolled over, falling off the bed she had been laying on and landing on the floor in a heap. She groaned again, just laying there with the side of her face against the carpet for several long minutes. Finally she forced herself up on her hands and knees and began to crawl, managing to get herself into the bathroom. From there she grabbed on to the sink and pulled herself up to her feet. Her legs felt wobbly as fuck so she kept a hold of the sink to steady herself and then glanced at her reflection in the mirror. What she saw looking back at her put her into a rage. Her face was NOT her own anymore. It was too young, too tan and too…ugh, too pretty. She blinked furiously, trying to will what she was seeing into going away. When that shit didn't work, she screamed in rage and smashed the mirror with her fist._

"_Hey hey now! No need for that."_

_Caroline's eyes narrowed as she turned to face the little girl. She looked like she was about six or seven years old and she had on a neat little cotton blue dress and had long brown hair and pure black eyes. The whole eye color thing should have been unnerving but Caroline wasn't even fazed by it. Considering where she had been all of this time, weird eyes were fucking normal at this point. "What the fuck happened to me?" she asked, her voice totally not hers. "What the fuck did you do to me?" This kid was going to fucking get it. Once she was more on her feet she was going to go over there and kick her fucking teeth down her throat._

_The girl didn't look intimidated for a single second. "My name is Lucy," she said pleasantly. "I brought you back to life. I had to use some other girl's body though because I didn't know where yours was and there was no point in bringing you back if you were going to wake up not here." She stretched out her hand for Caroline to take. "Your son and grandchildren are here. I'll fix you up to look like you and then you can go hunting for them."_

_Caroline just stared at the little girl for a couple of minutes. Despite the "nice" tone she was using, the little bitch obviously was under the impression that she was in charge and that did not go over well with her at all. That was not the came she fucking played. NOBODY was in charge of her, especially little snot nosed brats who didn't know their place. She started to say just that but then she stopped herself. As much as she wanted to put the little brat in her place, she could sense the power radiating off her. Whatever she was, she wasn't human…maybe it would be useful for her to play nice for just a little while longer. At the very least, maybe she could fucking get something done to look like herself again. That would be really fucking nice._

"_Well?" Lucy said impatiently. "Are you just going to stand there?"_

_Caroline resisted the urge to knock the bitch's block off and took a couple of guarded steps toward her. That pleased her and the kid took her hand and squeezed it, making her want to punch her on contact._

"_We're going to have a LOT of fun together…"_

…

"NO!" Glenn shook his head in denial as he saw the knife go into Mark's stomach. His brain screamed at him to go forward and do something but his feet were rooted to the spot. He was in shock; they all were. He sure as fuck wasn't expecting her to show up and to see her standing there with a knife in his brother's stomach was just beyond anything he could comprehend at the moment.

Caroline smirked and ripped the knife upwards, making sure she watched the life leave Mark's eyes before taking the knife out and letting his body drop to the floor in a heap. She could practically smell the fear coming from the group in front of her and it made her grin. Her entire life she had the kind of presence that put even the bravest of people who only met her in passing at unease and she just scared the hell out of pretty much everyone that spent more than a few minutes with her. This was something she had dearly DEARLY missed in all her years of being dead. "What?" she said in what was supposed to pass as innocently. In truth, it sounded menacing and she damn well knew it. "Are you not happy to see me?"

All eyes were wide and on her but none of them had the sheer look of terror that James's held. He couldn't even begin to react to the fact that his boyfriend of the past several decades had been murdered right in front of him. No, his body had gone numb in terror and he couldn't properly react to anything. All he could do was just stand there and stare at her, praying that this was a horrible nightmare and not actually happening.

"Hey! BOY!" Caroline's attention was more zoomed in on James than anyone else and she wasn't about to just let him ignore her. "Quit standing there like a fucking retard and fucking say something!"

James couldn't. He made one tiny attempt but not a singe sound passed through his lips. His mouth was completely dry and his throat felt like it had closed up on him, making it hard just to breathe, let alone talk. Natalya was standing in front of him protectively while Tiffany hid behind him and Glenn and Phil stayed off to the side…none of them could even begin to understand what just seeing her did to him. Glenn was the only one with the faintest idea but he wouldn't ever truly understand it. Seventeen years he had suffered under her. Seventeen years of physical, mental and emotional abuse and none of those scars truly healed. The mere mention of her name made him shudder, just remembering everything she had ever done to him made him freeze…she embodied the word fear to him. He wasn't the obnoxious, loudmouthed man that everyone knew when it came to her. With her, he was still the terrified three year old that she tried to kill with a wire hanger.

Some things never changed.

Caroline scowled, taking James's silence as him ignoring her. Oh how she HATED that. She went to go after him and that's when Glenn lunged at her, more so he could rip her apart for killing Mark than to protect James. He managed to spear her to the ground, knocking the knife out of her hand in the process. He tried to grab at her throat but she got her knee up and nailed him in the groin, which gave her enough time to use her brute strength to push him right off her. She went to reclaim the knife but Phil got real brave all of a sudden and not only kicked it away but nailed her right in the nose as well, breaking it and sending a nice amount of blood gushing out of it in the process.

_Oh no…_ James groaned to himself as he watched Caroline get up to her feet. He knew that look in her eyes all too well. Punk had just royally pissed her off-as if her just being back wasn't bad enough. Now she was fucking angry…this was going to end horribly.

Phil tried to hit her with another kick to the side of her head since he could do a lot more damage with his feet than his fists but Caroline wasn't about to get hit with that shit again. She caught him by his ankle and quicker than he could react, she twisted his leg in a direction it was not meant to go and brought her elbow down on it, breaking at least one bone in the process.

Tiffany's hand flew over her mouth as Phil screamed in pain. Glenn scrambled up to his feet and grabbed Caroline from behind, yanking her away from Phil violently. "RUN!" he screamed to the others as he tossed her as far away as he could before picking up Phil and clutching him tightly against him. He wanted to rip her apart but Phil couldn't run on his own and James had picked the wrong time to go useless on him. "GO GO GO!"

Tiffany didn't need to be told twice. She booked it out of there as fast as she could and Natalya wanted to do the exact same thing. The problem was, James was just refusing to move. "Come on!" She tried to drag him along by the hand but quickly realized that wasn't going to do a bit of good. So, being the practical person that she was, she lifted him up and threw him over her shoulder before taking off. Her speed was hindered by all the added weight but she forced herself to move as fast as possible anyway. It wasn't like she had any other choice in the matter.

"Son of a bitch," Caroline growled. She snagged the knife back and gripped the handle tightly as she began to follow the retreating group. She wasn't in any big rush to chase after them. It wasn't going to matter where they ran to or how fast they went; sooner or later, she was going to get them.

And then the real fun would begin.

…

After Adam's disappearance Randy absolutely insisted on looking for him and since they had been close to him, Jeff, Matt and Chris jumped on the bandwagon. That had given Evan, Kelly and Beth no choice but to do the same since obviously they wouldn't be any safer in the lobby anyway. "Do you think he really would kill Connor?" Evan asked to break the long silence that had taken over the group.

"I don't know," Randy replied honestly. "I would hope he wouldn't try for his own safety's sake but at this point? Anything is possible."

"You can say that again," Chris muttered.

Jeff nodded along, looking over at Matt and sighing. His brother had withdrawn into himself and it worried him. He knew what Jay had meant to him. Despite having an on again off again relationship at times, Jeff knew that Jay was the one Matt had wanted to settle down with at the end of the day. But now that opportunity was gone. It had been ripped away from him in an ugly, violent matter and there had been nothing that could have been done to stop it. Jeff couldn't even begin to imagine what that felt like.

"If he were to kill Connor you know he's dead meat if James and Cooper find out and get a hold of him," Beth said, not really bothering to mince her words at this point. The way she saw it, they were all going to die anyway so what was the point of not being brutally honest? At least the things that needed to get said would get said.

"I won't let that happen," Randy said automatically.

"You can't-"

"I won't…let…it happen." The very way Randy said it made it very clear that he was not going to hear another word on the subject.

Jeff sighed and grabbed on to Chris's hand before looking at Matt again, who had stopped in his tracks and was staring at one of the doors to his right. "What is it?" he asked. "What's the matter?"

"Do you guys hear that?" Matt's voice was soft and guarded and his eyes narrowed at the door.

Chris frowned. "Hear what?" He looked around at the others, who looked just as confused as he was. They hadn't heard a damn thing.

Matt shook his head, hearing the sound yet again. It sounded like a woman crying…it almost sounded like Melina, which was what made him grab the doorknob and open the door before anyone could stop him. The instant the door swung open a large cloud of dust flew into his face, making him cough violently.

"Matt!" Jeff grabbed his brother by the arm and pulled him back, shaking his head angrily. "What the hell were you doing?"

Matt just continued to cough and moved away from Jeff so he could dust himself off and try to breathe. While he did that, Evan put his shirt up over his mouth and nose so he wouldn't breathe any of the dust in as he looked into the room. "There's nothing here," he said. He stepped away from it and put his shirt back down. "I don't know what you heard but there's nothing in here."

Matt didn't say anything. He just continued to cough for several minutes before finally taking a large gasp for air. "I-" Suddenly he stopped and began coughing again, literally doubling over and expelling a huge mouthful of blood in the process.

"Holy fuck!" Jeff shouted in shock. He grabbed on to his brother and tried to keep him from falling as he continued to cough and heave up blood. "Matt!" His heart skipped a beat every time a fresh mouthful of blood emerged from his brother's mouth. "MATT!"

Matt gave absolutely no sign that he had even heard him. Within a matter of seconds his body had been taken over by a fever that caused him to break out into a sweat and was quite literally boiling his insides up. He opened his mouth to try to scream for someone to do something but all he ended up doing was throw up even more blood, making the pile at his and Jeff's feet grow even bigger than it already was.

"Chris!" Jeff exclaimed, looking to his boyfriend desperately for help. "Do something!"

Chris wanted to. He really really really wanted to but he didn't know where to start. Matt was not only throwing up blood now but blood was pouring out of his nose, eyes and ears as well. "Jesus Christ!" He (along with Evan) came to Matt's aid and tried to stop the bleeding with their handkerchiefs but there was nothing that could be done at this point. Matt slipped out of Jeff's grasp and fell to the floor, his body seizuring violently and losing blood at a rate that was just completely unbelievable.

"MATT!" Jeff tried to drop down to somehow help his brother but Chris grabbed a hold of him and pulled him back. "No! What are you doing? Let me go!" He tried to fight his way free but all that did was made Chris hang on to him more tightly. "Let go of me I have to help him!"

"Jeff…" Chris just shook his head and forcibly turned Jeff around so he shield him from seeing this. Matt was literally flopping around like a fish out of water, his body withering as he continued to be drained of his blood. The only logical explanation as to why this was happening was that there had to have been something in the dust that had gotten into Matt's lungs. Of course that didn't do a lick of good considering that he was just fucking dying and there was like nothing that could really be done about it. Randy and Beth looked like they wanted to grab him and try to do something but they weren't. They were too afraid that whatever now had Matt was contagious…and for them it was better him than them.

Matt's body suddenly flew up into the air, just levitating up above their heads for several long seconds before literally exploding into little pieces. "JESUS CHRIST!" Randy exclaimed as Beth and Kelly both screamed. Little bits of Matt hit them all but there was no blood; it had all been literally taken out of him. Jeff tried to wrench himself free to look but Chris tightened his grip even more and pressed Jeff's head against his shoulder so he couldn't sneak any kind of peek. There was absolutely no way that he could let him see that there was nothing left of his brother. "I'm sorry," he whispered. The apology really wouldn't do anything but he felt compelled to give it anyway. "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry…"

…

Adam scowled as he continued to storm through the hallways, getting angrier and angrier with every Connor-less second that passed by. He hated knowing what had to be done but not being able to do it. It was one of the most frustrating things in the entire world. "Connor," he called out, hoping he could maybe draw the younger man out of wherever the hell he had run off to. "Oh Connor…it's Addy. I know you're around here somewhere…"

_**Actually he's not.**_

**You're on a cold trail my friend. **

_**Yes yes, very cold.**_

Adam stopped in his tracks and looked around, getting confused when he didn't see anyone else around. "Hello?" he called out. "Who's there?"

_**That is the question isn't it?**_

**It is a question but it's not what's important right now. Finding that little brat Connor is.**

Adam perked up at that. "He does have something to do with this, doesn't he?" He fucking knew it. Nobody else had believed him but he had fucking known it.

**Of course he does. You're the only one smart enough to realize it.**

_**Something must be done about the boy.**_

**You must get him. You must get him and kill him. Then you'll set us all free.**

"That's what I'm trying to do," Adam pointed out. "But I can't find him."

_**Ah yes, of course.**_

**We can help you with that.**

"You can?"

_**Yes. We can help you find him…if you promise to make sure you kill him.**_

**Yes. You must put him down like the little dog that he is.**

"I will," Adam said quickly. It was easy for him to promise that because that was what he was planning on doing anyway. "I'll get him real good. Just lead me to him."

_**It will be-**_

**-our pleasure.**

…

Tiffany turned the corner and finally came to a necessary stop so she could try to breathe again. She had been running so fast that her legs ached and her lungs were burning. She wasn't even sure where they had all run to; they had just been in such a state of panic that they had just ran blindly. "Fuck me…"

"You're tired? Try lugging him around and then talk to me about being tired." Nattie set James down on his feet and then collapsed down to the ground, her legs hurting so bad that she couldn't even describe it. She was strong as hell but running that fast with that much dead weight on her shoulders had taken her to her limit.

"Is he still being useless?" Glenn asked nastily. He carefully sat Phil down next to Natalya and then grabbed James by the shirt so he could start shaking him. "Snap the fuck out of it you fuck!"

"Glenn!" Natalya yelled, trying to get up so she could separate them but she couldn't even manage that. Her legs were too weak and tired.

"No let him do it," Phil said, clutching at his broken leg with gritted teeth. His entire face had gone white with pain and he seemed about ready to throw up. "He's gotta snap the fuck out of it."

James let Glenn shake him, not caring enough to push him away. That pissed Glenn off and he punched James right in the face. "Fuck you you stupid son of a bitch!" Glenn heard Nattie yell his name again but he didn't give a shit if he was upsetting her. He was just way way beyond angry and he was going to let his grievances be known. "This is your fucking fault!" He hit James again, wanting to just beat him to death with his bare hands. "After nearly thirty years you're still afraid of her? You fucking pathetic-"

"Glenn!" Natalya shouted forcefully.

"NO!" he yelled, turning around and giving her a nasty glare. "That Lucy bitch feeds on fear and guess who Captain Useless here fears? He's the fucking reason she was unleashed on us!"

James said nothing to defend himself. He had nothing to combat those words because he knew they were true. This was his fault.

The silence served to keep up Glenn's rage and he hit James again and then once again when he still didn't get any kind of real reaction. Finally, when he went to strike again, Tiffany grabbed his arm and tried to force him to stop. He was in such a rage though he threw her off, thrashing her to the ground much to the shock of Phil and Natalya. James's entire body twitched and BAM! He nailed Glenn square in the face with a head butt. Glenn cursed loudly and stumbled back clutching his nose while James shook his head and helped Tiffany up to her feet.

"Thanks," she said gratefully. She cuddled up next to him, both to try to comfort him and because Glenn had scared her real bad just then.

"You're a fucking dick," Natalya growled at Glenn while Phil shook his head in disapproval. She forced herself back up to her feet and glared at him. She didn't give a shit how upset he was. Throwing a fit like a five year old wasn't going to do a damn thing and he certainly had no right to just throw Tiffany around like he just did. He was a big, strong guy, he could have ended up hurting her by doing that shit.

Glenn started to try to say something in his own defense but stopped when they all felt a tremor go through the hallway. "What the fu-"

The entire hallway began to shake violently, sending Natalya falling back to the ground and making Tiffany gasp and climb up on James like a monkey. James took a step back, trying to grab on to the wall for some kind of support but before he could reach it the floor underneath him gave out and he and Tiffany both fell through it.

"NO!" Natalya screamed. "JAMES!"

Tiffany screamed and clung to James for dear life as they fell and he tried his best to grab on to absolutely anything that could maybe stop them. He found nothing of the sort though. They just kept falling until they finally landed through a little table, him taking most of the impact which was fine with him. He was bigger and stronger, he could absorb more punishment than she could.

"Oh my god!" she gasped out, scrambling up to her feet and looking around. "Oh god oh god oh god…" She took several shallow breaths in order to unsuccessfully calm herself back down. "Are you okay?" she asked James as he got back up.

"I-" He stopped and left the question unanswered when he looked around and realized where they were. "Oh no…"

"What?" Tiffany said nervously. "What's the matter?" She looked around, so not getting what the problem was. They were in a living room, which was weird yeah, but the way James was acting, it was like they had just gone to the gallows. "James talk to me! You're scaring me."

James couldn't say a word. He was too busy looking around the living room of his childhood home and knowing in his heart what was about to happen next. "We gotta run," he finally said, grabbing her arm and looking around nervously. "We-"

BANG!

Tiffany screamed and James just about did too as Caroline kicked the door open and then slammed it shut behind her. "There you are," she said, shaking her head and glaring daggers at the both of them.

James could only gulp. _We are so fucked…_


	20. Come Out and Play

"Come ON!" Tiffany yelled anxiously. She grabbed James by the hand and pulled him towards the stairs. Now running up the stairs was never a good idea in these kinds of situations but she was in a panic and didn't know where else to go. The only real mercy she had was that James was at least running on his own this time. She wasn't nearly as strong as Natalya was there was no way she would have been able to carry him.

"No no no!" James yelled when she tried to take him into the first room she saw. He yanked her to the one across from it and practically threw her inside before shutting the door and frantically started barricading it. "Not that one!"

"Why not?" she asked as she rubbed her shoulder. He hadn't watched his strength and had nearly yanked it out of its socket. "What was wrong with that room?"

"HER room." James finished barricading the door and sank down to the floor, his legs too shaky to support his own weight anymore.

"Her room?" It took a few seconds for it to sink in that he was referring Caroline. "OH Jesus." She put both her hands in her hair and clutched at her blonde locks, trying to think about what they were going to do now. Hiding in this room was an okay short term plan but they needed a better one than that. "James-stop that!" She just caught him clawing at his neck and staring at the wall and she got down on her knees and grabbed his wrist to make him stop. "Don't do that!" She shook her head as he kept trying to fight her. "Stop! James!" She smacked him lightly across the face to get through to him. "Just stop!"

He stopped, although he was very reluctant to do so. "I can't…I…something's wrong with me."

She gave him a sympathetic look. "James no-"

He wasn't even listening. He just ripped his hand out of her grasp and began clawing at the scar on his neck once again. He was totally lost and didn't know what to do. Connor and Cooper were gone and he had no idea where they were, which was a bad blow to his state of mind. Then Caroline came back and killed Mark…the reality of that hadn't truly set in yet. Mark had been a part of his life for forty years and now he was not just gone but DEAD. It hadn't even really sunk in yet for him and maybe that was a good thing. He was already freaking out enough as it was. Caroline's presence and now being trapped in what now looked exactly like his old house…everything was just fucking with his head horribly. He didn't even feel like himself anymore. He felt helpless. Utterly and completely helpless and that wasn't a feeling that he liked at all.

"James! God damn it!" Tiffany grabbed his wrist and slapped him once again. "Will you stop? We need to get out of here!"

She was damn right about that. There was absolutely no way they could stay there. Bad bad things would happen if they did. He forced himself to get back up to his feet and look around. The only other way out besides the door was the window and what had apparently happened to Kofi when he tried to escape out the window wasn't forgotten by either one of them. Still, the way James saw it, he would take getting chopped in half by an evil window over facing Caroline. At least the death by window would be quick.

Tiffany saw James looking at the window and hesitantly went near it, frowning when she got close enough to see out of it. "Uh…where did the snow go?"

James blinked in confusion at the question. "What?"

"The snow!" Tiffany grabbed his hand and pulled him over to the window. "The fucking snow that made it so we couldn't just leave in the first place!"

James looked out the window and his eyes widened. She was right; there was absolutely no snow anywhere to be seen. Now he knew for a fact there had been so much snow that staying here had seemed safer at the time…or was that even a fact? Had that snow been real? Or had it been something else that had just been used to play them? He didn't fucking know and that was the most frustrating thing of all. "This is fucked up," he grumbled. "Seriously I-" He stopped when he heard a soft thump coming from the closet. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear wh-" Tiffany's eyes widened as they both heard the thump this time. "What the hell was that?"

The answer came seconds later when Caroline burst out of the closet and hopped on to James's back, attempting to dig a wire hanger exactly where his scar from the first time she did it was. "Surprise!"

"Jesus CHRIST!" James grabbed on to her in order to try to keep her from actually being able to dig the wire into his skin and tried to somehow shake her off but she wasn't budging. She just laughed at his efforts and wrapped her legs around his waist so he would have an even harder time to get her off.

"Leave him alone you crazy bitch!" Tiffany lunged forward and grabbed a hold of Caroline's hair, managing to yank her off of James because she caught the older woman by surprise. Before Caroline could turn around and knock her lights out she was up on her back, her arm snaked around her neck in an attempt to choke her out. Caroline snarled but instead of trying to yank Tiffany off of her she rushed at the window, smashing herself and the young blonde through it and falling straight down to the ground.

"Holy fuck!" Keeping one hand on his neck, James tried to head towards the window but before he could get to it the wall closed up around it. "Fuck!" He tried to turn around and head towards the door but it was gone. Just like the front door of the hotel it was gone.

He was fucking trapped.

…

"I…I think I'm drunk," Bryan slurred out as he polished off another drink. He and Melina were laying together on the bed and both of them were pretty well trashed at this point. While not the smartest plan in the world given the circumstances, they were both at least too drunk to be utterly terrified out of their minds anymore. That was at least a nice change of pace.

Melina giggled and tried to snatch the bottle of whiskey out of his hand. "I should cut you off then."

"No no-"

"Yes yes yessss…" Melina clumsily tried to reach for the bottle again and just ended up falling on top of him and just staying there. "Mmm you're comfy."

"Am I?" Bryan petted her hair, not even caring that her breath absolutely reeked of alcohol.

"Mmhmmm." Melina scooted up on him to make herself more comfortable and looked directly into his arm. "You're so cute too. You're a total nerd but you're cute…like Opie."

Bryan wasn't exactly sure if he should take that as a compliment or not but he also didn't get very much time to dwell on it. Her lips was on his, drunkenly kissing him. He was so shocked that he opened his mouth and the next thing he knew her tongue was in there, forcing his tongue into a duel. There was a tiny tiny voice in the back of his head that was saying that maybe they shouldn't be doing this but it went utterly ignored as he began kissing her back feverishly and he rolled them over so he was on top of her. _What the hell_ he thought to himself as his hands began to roam all over her body. _Gonna die anyway…might as well get some before then._

…

"I think…we're okay…for the moment anyway," Michelle said as she and Mike finally came to a stop.

Mike nodded along and looked back, not seeing anyone coming after them. "Good…good." He put his hand on his chest and tried to will his heartbeat into slowing back down. It wasn't exactly working out too well. His heart was determined to beat its way out of its chest, what he wanted be damned. "Think anyone else is still alive?"

Michelle could only shrug. She honestly didn't know. Part of her hoped so because as much as she didn't like anyone else there, it just depressed her to think that she and Mike were the only ones left. But even if there were other people alive, how much longer would they last? How much longer would she and Mike even last? As it was, it felt like they were on a giant countdown and it was all just a matter of time before they were dead too.

Mike frowned at the look on Michelle's face and shook his head. "You letting this place win or something?"

Michelle blinked, confused at being dragged out of her thoughts. "What?"

Mike shook his head and grabbed her so he could give her a shake. "Fuck this place and everything in it. Fuck it all straight to hell. We're going to get out of here and we're going to give everything in here a good kick to the ass on our way out. You understand me?" It was going to do him no good to stick around with someone who was so convinced that they were going to die. He needed her angry and determined to live so that maybe they could make that happen. "Do you fucking understand-"

"Yes!" She shoved him back and gave him an irritated look. "Just quit fucking shaking me!"

He started to say something in response to her but stopped when heavy breathing and soft moans caught his attention. "What the hell…?"

Michelle's eyes widened. "Does that sound like Melina to you?"

"Yeah," he said slowly. "It kind of does."

"Gross…" She put her ear to one of the doors and motioned for Mike to come over. "It's coming from in here." She grabbed on to the doorknob and went in without even knocking. Mike quickly followed her and almost wished he hadn't two seconds later. Bryan and Melina were both half naked and they looked very…busy.

"My eyes!" Mike slapped a hand over his face and shook his head. "What the hell?"

Melina screamed and pulled Bryan even more on top of her while glaring daggers at their uninvited guests. As for Bryan himself, he just stared at them dumbly because the alcohol was just totally fucking with his proper response to this whole situation.

"Oh my God, what the hell is with you two?" Michelle physically grabbed Bryan and pulled him off of Melina. "This is NOT the time for that!"

"Especially with him!" Mike just stared at Melina incredulously as she rolled off the bed to face off with Michelle angrily. She was totally topless and the skirt she was wearing and the knee high boots just helped to make her look totally ridiculous. "I mean really, him? HIM?"

"What's wrong with me?" Bryan asked with a pout as he tried to fix his pants and put his shirt back on.

"Do I really need to answer that?" Mike had never understood what hot chicks saw in this guy. Anywhere they went there were hot chicks wanting to get up on him. Everyone had labeled him the nerdiest chick magnet ever and Mike just didn't get it.

"Put your clothes back on and don't give me that look!" Michelle didn't seem to give a rat's ass if Melina looked ready to claw her eyes out. "This is NOT the time-"

"Why not?" Melina balled up her fists and stomped her foot childishly. "We're going to fucking die anyway! So why should I-WAHH!" A hand had snaked out from under the bed and yanked her by the ankle, making her crash face first to the floor. Michelle and Bryan immediately grabbed a hold of her and tried to pull her from whatever it was that was trying to drag her under the bed. Mike hesitated for about thirty seconds and then joined in the saving her effort.

"Get it off me!" Melina screamed hysterically. She was kicking her free foot wildly in hopes that she would get the thing that had her off. "Get it away get it away!"

"What do you think we're trying to do?" Mike yelled at her. He was pulling back as hard as he could and for a moment he thought maybe they had her. But then the thing poked its head out from underneath the bed and revealed itself to be a clown, which made him scream and jump as far away as he could. He absolutely HATED clowns. When he had been a kid the part with the clown in Poltergeist and the movie It had scared the living shit out of him and his fear had been made even worse when he had been ten and one of the clowns at the circus (or at least a guy there dressed as a clown) attempted to corner him and touch him in ways that left him scarred for life. So yeah, there was no way in hell he was going near that thing.

The clown gave him an evil look and winked before its other hand disappeared in Melina's skirt. Two seconds later she let out the most horrible scream and Mike quickly slammed his eyes shut, not opening them again until he heard Bryan and Michelle scream again.

"Peek-a-boo!" the clown shouted as his fingers poked out Melina's eyes and wiggled around freely. "I see you!" He ripped his hand back out, taking out several of Melina's internal organs in the process. "Let's play a game!"

Mike just screamed and bolted out of the room as fast as he possibly could, Bryan and Michelle not too far behind him. The defiantness he had earlier was completely gone. They were so going to die in this place-but he had to make sure his death didn't come because of that clown. He needed that small favor so very much that he couldn't even begin to describe it.

…

Chris continued to stroke Jeff's hair gently, trying to provide the younger man any comfort that he possibly could. After what happened to Matt they had retreated to one of the nearby rooms because Jeff had just gone limp on them. At first he had screamed and had demanded to know what had happened to Matt. Nobody actually told him but he had figured out that Matt was dead just by their silence.

"Should we do something for him?" Kelly whispered to Beth. She really really felt horrible for him. She knew him and Matt were really close so she couldn't even imagine how he was feeling.

Beth sighed and shook her head. "There's nothing we can do." It wasn't something she wanted to say but it was the truth. There was really nothing they could do for him at this point.

Randy watched the scene from the doorway, trying to contain himself as best as he could. He felt bad for Jeff, he really did. But they couldn't just sit there and go through the whole grieving process. He knew if he said anything that he would be accused of just wanting to go find Adam and that did really play a part in it. But from a practical standpoint it was also not smart to just stand around for very much longer. The longer they stayed put, the more they were going to turn into sitting ducks. And that was just going to get them killed all the much quicker.

**They won't want to hear that. They'll just want to stay here and baby the rainbow haired one.**

_**Sshhh,**_ another voice said when Randy started to ask who had said that. _**Don't speak out loud. Talk through your mind and maybe we'll tell you where your precious Adam is.**_

_Adam?_ Randy could feel his eyes starting to get droopy and it almost felt like he was slipping into a trance. _You know where Adam is?_

**Of course we do. We know all sorts of wonderful stuff.**

_**And we can take you to him. If you want.**_

Randy shook his head, trying to stay rational about this. _How do I know this isn't a trick? You're strange voices in my head. Do you really think I should trust you?_

**You better. We're your only hope in finding your precious Adam.**

"Randy?"

Before Randy could fully snap out of it and respond to Evan the room went dark and he felt something grab him. He let out a short scream but didn't get much of a chance to fight it off. As suddenly as he had been grabbed he was let go and the lights came back on, revealing he was in some hallway that he might have been in earlier. He couldn't tell for sure though, all the shit was starting to blend together. "What the fuck…"

"Connor. Oh Connor….come out and play…"

Randy's eyes widened. That was Adam. That was Adam's voice. But he didn't sound like himself at all. He sounded…well he sounded psychotic to be honest. And it scared Randy. It really really scared him. But he forced himself to swallow down that fear and follow the sound of Adam's voice. "Adam? Babe?"

"Connor? Come on Connor, it's just Addy. Don't you want to play with me?"

"Adam!" Randy picked up the pace and followed the sound of his boyfriend's voice, eventually finding him walking down another hallway with a large axe in his hands. "What the…Adam? What the hell are you doing?"

Adam turned around and Randy took an involuntary step back. Adam's eyes were wild, making him look just as psycho as he sounded. "I'm just trying to find Connor. The two of us need to have a special chat."

Randy shook his head. This was not right. Something was just so horribly wrong here. "Adam stop," he pleaded, forcing himself to take a couple of steps forward. "I know you're scared, we all are-"

"Then why don't you help me DO something about it?" Adam asked, his tone getting very very nasty. "Connor is fucking doing this and he has to-"

"Adam come on. He's not doing this-"

"You don't know that!" Adam shook his head violently. "You're just saying that because you're scared of the Lawsons. Well let me tell you something Randall, there's bigger and badder things to be scared of now."

"Maybe but have you stopped to think what's going to happen if you succeed? If Connor is doing this and James and Cooper aren't dead and find out what you did, how long do you reckon you'll last?" When Adam didn't say anything Randy pressed on further. "And what if you're wrong? What if Connor isn't the cause of all this and you kill him for nothing?" He took a few more steps forward and shook his head. "Come on. Just give me the axe and we'll figure out what to do together." He saw Adam starting to melt and it encouraged him to go on further. "Please? Come on baby, for me. Cooperate with me please…"

Adam sighed and he nodded before slowly extending the axe out to Randy. Before the younger man could take it, Adam's eyes flashed darkly and he suddenly swung it, decapitating his own boyfriend without any hesitation. "Sorry Randall," Adam said, watching Randy's body fall to the floor with an expressionless face. "It's nothing personal." He moved the axe up and let it rest on his shoulder before turning around and going on his way. "Oh Connor…Connor…come out and play with me…"


	21. Don't Fear the Reaper

Cooper woke up with a sharp pain in his wrist and a pounding in his head that was so bad that it made him sick to his stomach. His vision was blurry when he first opened his eyes but once that cleared up he realized he was tied to a chair in one of the rooms and Joie was standing just a few feet in front of him, watching expectantly. _No,_ he reminded himself as he started to struggle against his restraints. _That's not Joie. That can't be him. It's a trick. It's a trick like Connor's voice was. _Even telling himself that though didn't make him feel better. Trick or not, his dead boyfriend looked real as fuck , making his heart ache even more than his head and wrist did.

"What's the matter Cooper?" Joie asked innocently. "You don't look very happy to see me?"

Cooper squeezed his eyes shut and tried to will himself out of this situation. This wasn't fair. Why couldn't he get a scary monster or something like that to torment him? Why did it have to be this?

"Cooper come on now. Open your eyes. Come on now."

Cooper wasn't going to obey but then he felt Joie sit on his lap and he opened his eyes against his will. Joie was straddling him, his arms wrapped around his neck and his head tilted to the side. The eye that was dangling out of its socket made him shudder violently and turn his head to the side. He couldn't fucking look. It just made him want to be sick.

"What's the matter Cooper?" Joie grabbed a hold of his chin and made him look back at him. "Huh? Is it my face? Is that's what's bothering you?" He chuckled at Cooper's lack of response. "You remember how this happen didn't you? Daddy and his friends got real mean with me and they beat me and raped me and then tied me to the back of Daddy's truck and drug me until they got to the desert, where they left me to die." He let out a long sigh and shook his head. "You remember when you used to say you wanted to kill Daddy for how he used to hurt me? And I would use to beg for you not to?" His face contorted into a sneer and he grabbed Cooper's chin and gave it a really hard squeeze. "WHY THE FUCK DID YOU LISTEN TO ME?" The volume of his voice and the suddenness of how it changed made Cooper flinch violently. "Huh? Why the fuck did you listen to me?"

Cooper couldn't formulate a response to that and ended up getting smacked in the face for it. His head rocked to the side and he winced at how much his cheek stung.

"Come on Cooper, answer me," Joie said, petting the red mark he had left behind when he had smacked him. "Come on baby, don't be shy…" He waited but Cooper still didn't say anything. His voice didn't want to work properly. "Oh I see how it is," Joie said, his eyes narrowing and his tone taking on a much more dangerous tone. "You just don't want to admit that you wanted me to die."

"What? No!" Cooper shook his head frantically, his heart somewhere down in his stomach now. It didn't matter that his brain was still trying to tell him that this wasn't Joie and therefore, what this thing had to say didn't matter. Ever since Joie died he had been afraid of Joie blaming him for his death. It didn't matter how many times people told him that he wasn't to blame and he needed to let the blame go; the one person he needed to have put him at ease was gone and now some fucking apparition of him was saying the shit he was fucking afraid to hear and it was screwing with him horribly. "Joie no-"

"No?" Joie chuckled bitterly before smacking Cooper across the face yet again. "Don't you tell me no." He grabbed a handful of Cooper's hair and yanked his head back, petting his face and laughing at the way the bound man flinched at his touch. "You can't lie to me Cooper Lawson. I see right through you."

Cooper shut his eyes once again and gritted his teeth. _This isn't Joie,_ he reminded himself. _This isn't Joie this isn't Joie this isn't Joie._ Maybe if he repeated that to himself enough times it would really sink in for him. _This isn't Joie this isn't Joie this isn't-_ "FUCK!"

Joie laughed and made another cut across Cooper's chest with his own knife that he had taken from him while he was unconscious. "Did that hurt?" Before he could get the obvious answer he made another cut and then quickly licked the blood up. "Now…some people would think that I should kill you for letting me die like that. Hell, I'm tempted to really really agree with them." He pressed his forehead against Cooper's and rubbed his nose against his. "But I love you baby-"

"Shut up," Cooper growled, trying to struggle so he could get this fucking imposter thing off of him. "You're NOT him don't say that shit to me!"

Joie pouted his lips. "What? Does it bother you?" His lips went from the pout to a smile when Cooper only glared at him. "Oh baby, don't be that way." He pressed his lips against Cooper's, holding on to his head tightly and not letting him get away as he forced his tongue down his throat. "I love you." He moved his head down so he could kiss and bite at his neck. "I don't want to kill you." He nipped at his earlobe hard enough to breathe. "I just want to have some fun with you until something comes along that will kill you. And then I can let you die and we can be together…forever."

…

Natalya folded her arms over her chest as she stayed close behind Glenn and Phil even though she didn't necessarily want to be with them. She wanted to be finding the Lawsons but her two companions didn't have that very high on their agenda at all (assuming it was even on it to begin with). If the situation wasn't so dire she would have gone off to search for them on her own. As it was though, she would more than likely die on her own so she was staying with Crispy and Princess Straightedge for now.

"Is there anything that um…can you um…" Phil was really nervous to get into the subject he was about to with his boyfriend but he didn't think it could really be avoided. "Is there any way that you could um…maybe bring Mark back?"

Glenn stopped so suddenly that Nattie ran right into him. "Bring him back?"

"Yeah," Phil said, not sure if he was really liking Glenn's tone. "I mean I have all the faith in the world in you babe but both of you brothers of destruction would be better than one…wouldn't it?"

Glenn stared at him for a very long time before shaking his head. "I can't do it."

"You can't? But-"

"I don't have that kind of power," Glenn stated bluntly. "Mark was more into that shit, not me. "

Phil sighed loudly in defeat. He had thought he had been on to something with that idea and it sucked to have it shot down. "Well fuck. I'm out of ideas then."

Glenn shook his head and looked at Nattie, who didn't really say or do anything because she was too busy looking at the small figure in the blue dress that was at the end of the hallway. "Is that Mary or Lucy?" she asked nervously.

Glenn and Phil both looked and Phil audibly gulped. "Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck…I wanna run. Can we run? I-"

"Shut up!" Glenn hissed, slapping his large hand over Phil's mouth to make him stop. He narrowed his eyes and stared at the small girl, not relaxing a single bit until the girl looked at them and revealed her pure white eyes. "It's Mary," he said, not able to hide the relief in his voice. Even though he had the feeling it wouldn't be avoidable forever, he was definitely not looking to face off with the little bitch quite yet.

"Mary?" Nattie called out, taking a hesitant step forward. She shook her head as the young ghost immediately tensed up in fear. "No no no honey. It's alright I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to talk to you."

Mary shook her head as Nattie started to take steps towards her. "I don't wanna talk, she whimpered softly. "Lucy might get mad-"

"Is she nearby?" Nattie asked quickly.

"No…not now…"

"So we'll keep this conversation our little secret. How does that sound?"

Mary didn't say anything to that. She didn't move either so that gave Nattie enough time to go straight up to her. Glenn and Phil were approaching her as well, although they were making sure to still keep their distance. "I can't let you out," she said nervously. "I don't know how. It's Lucy that does this not me."

"We know honey," Nattie assured her. She squatted down and thought about reaching out to try and touch her but stopped herself. She didn't know how well that would go over and didn't want to scare the girl off. "We found your grandpa earlier. He told us pretty much everything-"

"He's a liar!" Mary burst out, shaking her head vehemently. "He's a liar! He is, he says Lucy isn't Lucy but she is! She's not a demon she's my sister! I had to help her come back!"

Nattie looked at Glenn, who only shook his head. With everything that had been going on, what she was saying was obviously just her own belief, not anything that was actually true. "Sweetie…"

"She said I had to help her," Mary said, wiping the tears that were streaming down her face with the back of her hand. "Why was it fair that I got to live and she didn't? It wasn't fair…"

"But is her coming back to just hurt people fair?" Nattie asked gently. "Look at everything she's doing. Is this fair? Do you think she should do this?"

"No…."

"Did your sister ever hurt anyone before she came back?"

Mary silently shook her head. Her eyes suddenly began to dart around wildly and she took a couple of steps back. "I gotta go now," she said nervously. "I gotta go I can't be here. I'm gonna get in trouble…"

"Mary please don't-wait!" Nattie groaned as the girl disappeared right before her eyes. "Fuck."

Glenn shook his head. "I don't know what you were expecting to get out of her."

She just sighed and stood back up. She had been hoping that maybe she could get through to the girl somehow but that had obviously been a bust. "Well what do you think we should do then?" she asked. "Because I have no ideas."

Glenn started to think, but a loud buzzing noise caught his attention before he could come up with anything. "What the fuck was that?"

"Bees?" Phil guessed as he and Nattie looked around. He wasn't actually joking around; if this place was going off fear, he knew plenty of people that were scared of bees.

Nattie almost wanted to hit Phil for saying that because she was afraid that he was right but restrained herself at the last second. Something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye and she quickly turned more towards it, her eyes widening as she saw it was a black swarm of something coming towards them. Bees, wasps, hornets, something else…she had no idea but it gave her a very very bad feeling. "Glenn…"

"What the fuck is THAT?" Phil asked, his voice cracking from the sudden jolt of fear that went through him.

"Who the FUCK cares?" Glenn tightened his hold on Phil before taking off as fast as he could, making Nattie start to run as well. He was on the right track with this idea. It really didn't matter what the fuck that shit was. It was coming at them and they were getting the fuck out of dodge before it got them.

…

"You know…I'm starting to get really impatient," Adam commented because he knew that the voices were listening. It felt like he had been searching for Connor forever and hadn't been getting anywhere. The only person he had found was Randy and he had taken care of that distraction real nice. "I'm starting to think you're really not helping me here."

_**Hey now, don't get snippy with us.**_

**Mr. Connor is on the move. That makes getting to him just a little bit harder.**

_**Little brat moves very fast.**_

**Oh yes he does**

"I don't give a damn about how fast he moves," Adam snapped. "How about you fucking do something to keep him from moving around on me? How the fuck does that sound?"

He didn't get an answer for that. "Fuckers," he muttered under his breath. He tightened his grip on the axe and kept on going. If they weren't going to help like they said they were he was just going to have to do this himself. _It's so hard to find good help these days…_

…

Tiffany's breaths were ragged and uneven as she dragged herself across the ground. The fall from the window hadn't killed her. She had survived, although Caroline making sure she absorbed all the impact for the both of them just about had done her in. For a short while there, she hadn't been able to move or really even breathe. She had just laid there, wheezing and crying until she could finally roll herself over and attempt to get away.

"Where the fuck do you think you're going?" Caroline asked as she followed her quite easily. "I mean really, what is this going to accomplish?" She let the younger woman crawl a little bit further before kicking her in the ribs as hard as she could. She would have much rather been going after James but if this little bitch was going to interfere with her business, then she would very gladly teach her a lesson.

Tiffany cried out as Caroline nailed her right in the ribs yet again. She thought she heard something crack the third time around and out of self preservation she started trying to roll out of the way, which only got a foot stomped down on her lower back so she wouldn't go anywhere.

"Come here come here come here," Caroline said quickly as she grabbed on to Tiffany's long blonde locks and pulled her up by the hair. "Now let's see…" She sneered at the younger woman's tear stained voice. "Yuck." She slammed her down face first into the grass as hard as she could. "Quit fucking bawling you big baby. You don't even know what the fuck pain really is yet."

While it was really a cliché thing to say, Tiffany could tell that Caroline was beyond serious-and she proved it to boot. She yanked Tiffany up by her hair again and pelted her in the face as hard as she could, breaking her nose on impact. Blood spurted out of it and a lot of it went down into her mouth, which made her cough and choke violently. "HA!" Caroline sneered obnoxiously before slamming her face down into the ground yet again. "That can't feel good…" She kicked her in the ribs again, forcing her over on to her back. "Now THAT is a position I'm sure your used to being in." She raised her foot up and prepared to stomp right on that pretty little face that was staring at her with wide eyes as its owner tried to push herself back when a voice crashed the party and made Caroline's snap in irritation.

"Wait! Don't do that!"

Caroline looked back and saw Lucy standing by a large hole that was in the ground. "Why not?" she asked angrily.

"I got an idea," Lucy said in that cutesey smug voice of hers. She pointed to the hole in the ground and motioned for Caroline to come over and see it for herself. "Come on! Come look!"

_Oh I'll look at it alright…_ Caroline went over there with every intention of kicking Lucy down into that hole but then she stopped when she saw that it wasn't just a hole; it was a grave. A grave with an open coffin in it, just waiting to be filled. Caroline looked to Lucy (who smirked) before looking back at Tiffany, who was trying to get back up to her feet so she could run. She knew exactly what this little Lucy bitch wanted…and to be honest, this was actually one idea that she could get fully behind.

"Oh no no no!" Caroline tore off after Tiffany, easily catching the injured girl and throwing her up over her shoulder. "There is no escaping here. Whoever told you that was an option is a fucking liar."

"Let me go!" Tiffany shouted as she beat her fists against Caroline's back as hard as she could. That was about all she could do at this point besides mildly squirm under Caroline's iron grip. Her heart was pounding so hard inside of her chest that it hurt. "Let me go!"

Caroline smirked as she stopped on the edge of the grave. "Fine then." She slammed Tiffany down into the coffin as hard as she could, jarring her injured back really bad and making the pain disorient her. "There. That's better." She hopped down in there and shut the coffin before the younger woman could realize what was happening. "She can't fucking push this thing open can she?"

"Nope," Lucy said happily. "It can't open from the inside. She's nice and trapped."

"Wonderful." Caroline's voice was deadpan, which threw Lucy off just a tad. "Now that that's done…" Caroline climbed back out of the grave and dusted herself off. "I can get back to business."

"Hey hey hey hey hey! You're not finished here yet!"

Caroline's face contorted into something very ugly as she turned back around to face Lucy once more. "What?" she growled softly. "What the fuck is it now?"

"You didn't put the dirt back in," Lucy replied. She pointed to the mound of dirt by the grave with the shovel sticking out of it.

Caroline looked back and forth between the dirt and Lucy before shaking her head. "Fuck that shit. You do it."

Lucy blinked, obviously completely taken off guard by being blatantly disobeyed. "No, you do it!" she insisted, stamping her foot for good measure. "You do it NOW! I brought you back, you OBEY me! That is how it works!"

"No actually, it don't." Caroline was actually somewhat amused by this fit that was being thrown, which was a rarity. "Look sweetheart, I'm not in your army of bitches. You brought me back because that fuckhead I call a son still is afraid of me and I will get him. I'm going to get him and I will make him watch as I kill those retarded little boys of his and it will be done because I-key word here, I-want to do it, not because of you. You can have everyone else, I don't give a flying fuck about them or you or your fucking hotel horror house. You getting what I'm saying Princess?"

Lucy's face twisted into something truly ugly and her eyes almost seemed to get blacker. "I can send you back!" she threatened to a totally not impressed Caroline. "I can!" She saw that Caroline wasn't threatened by any means and it just made her even more angry. "GET HER!" she shrieked as she threw her head up into the air. "GET HER GET HER GET HER!"

Loud howls filled the air and Caroline could hear the sounds of the dogs running before she saw them coming. "Oh yay, it's the mutts," she muttered under her breath. She made no move to get away though or even grab anything to defend herself. She just stood there and let the dogs come at her, readying her foot to start kicking when all of a sudden they came screeching to a halt about a half a foot away from her. _Interesting…_

"What are you doing?" Lucy asked angrily. "Get her! Get her NOW!"

The dogs didn't obey though. They just moved in place and whined, which made Caroline tilt her head to the side in curiosity. They wanted to jump on her and sink their sharp teeth into her and tear at her flesh; she could see it in their eyes. But they couldn't. They couldn't do it for whatever reason. Something was stopping them. What it possibly could be was beyond her until she thought back to the conversation she had eavesdropped on before she had killed Mark. The old man had said Lucy fed on fear…did that mean she could only really hurt and kill the ones that could feel it? It seemed likely, given the behavior of her dogs. Caroline didn't feel fear. Never once in her life had she ever felt it. She had caused it and knew it on sight but there was no way for her to relate to it really because she had never ever felt it for herself.

"Well then…this has been fun." Her voice was dripping sarcasm and she quickly shot her foot out, nailing the dog closest to her right in the face before spinning around and nailing Lucy as well because she had made the mistake of getting too close. "But I think I'll be going now." She smirked down at Lucy, who was holding her face and glaring at her hatefully. "Get in my way again and I'll roast you alive. You understand you little brat?" She didn't actually wait for an answer to that. She just chuckled at the look she was getting before storming back to the hotel. First stop: find James, fuck with him. Then it would be off to find the grandkids and do what should have been done before they had ever even left Annabelle's womb.

…

"Daddy?" Connor called out wearily as he wandered aimlessly through the hallways. He didn't even know where the fuck he was going. For all he knew, he was just walking around in circles over and over and over again. "Coopy?" He sighed and stopped walking. He couldn't keep doing this. The complete lack of getting anywhere was really starting to take a toll on him and it wasn't fair. Why couldn't he find anyone? Were they all dead? Was that why he was all alone? No…no no no that couldn't be it. James and Cooper had to still be alive. They were his daddy and his big brother they couldn't be dead. They couldn't die that was just not possible. They had to be around here somewhere. The hotel was just being mean and keeping them all apart.

"Connor? Oh Connor…where are you buddy?"

Connor frowned and looked to the direction the voice came from. "Adam?"

"Connor?" It was Adam. "You okay buddy?" Adam stepped into view from around the corner, his hands behind his back and his face somewhat hidden in the darkness.

"No…I want my Daddy and Coopy," Connor whimpered. He hugged himself and shook his head. "I want to go home."

"I do too…I know where your daddy and Cooper are," Adam said, which sure as hell caught his interest.

"You do?" Connor said eagerly. "Where are they?"

"I'll show you," Adam said, adjusting his grip on the axe he was holding behind his back. "Come here and I'll show you." He smirked as Connor immediately began to come towards him. "That's it…that's it…come here…that's a good boy…"


	22. Here's Addy

"That's it…that's it…come here…that's a good boy…"

Connor suddenly stopped and frowned. Something was just not right about this situation. He couldn't really put his finger on as to why it wasn't right. Not at first anyway. But then he remembered that Adam was one of the people that didn't like him very much. He was never mean to him the way people like Mike or Michelle or Layla were but he didn't exactly hide the fact that he didn't like him or his family. And now he was not only trying to be nice but he was going to take him to James and Cooper? Yeah, something really didn't add up there.

"_Connor what the FUCK were you doing?" Cooper yelled as he held on tightly to Connor's hand and dragged him away from the park and back to their house. He had turned his back just long enough to go take a piss and when he had turned back around he had caught Connor allowing himself to be lured in by some creep standing by a van. Cooper had gotten over there in the nick of time and stabbed the guy before he could do what Cooper was thinking he was going to do (the park had been empty except for them and the guy so there had been no witnesses to the event) and they had just finished dumping the body down a manhole and now it was lecture time. "I mean really, what the FUCK were you thinking? You do NOT just try to run off with people like that! How many times have Dad and I told you that?"_

"_But Coopy, he was going to give me candy!" Connor protested. He was trying to wiggle out of Cooper's grip but he was being totally unsuccessful at it. "He was NICE!"_

"_No he was not!" Cooper was ready to just smack Connor. _

"_Yes he was!"_

"_No he wasn't! People don't just offer candy like that to little boys without something bad on their minds."_

_Connor frowned. "What do you mean?" He was seven and didn't grasp the stranger danger stuff that had been drilled into most other kids' heads at a much younger age, although that wasn't because of a lack of effort by the older people around him._

"_He was probably looking to kidnap you and take you to his basement and touch your no-no parts," Cooper said bluntly. No point in beating around the bush. It wasn't like Connor would get it otherwise. He really just lived in his own little oblivious world unless shit was drilled into his head in ways he couldn't forget._

_Connor's eyes just about popped out of his head. "WHAT?"_

"_Yeah." Cooper nodded and stopped walking so he could kneel down and look Connor right in his eyes. "That's how some of the dirty pervy child molesters get the kids they want. They lie and say they have candy or tell them that they need help finding their dog or they're going to take them to their parents…you can't trust them Connor. You gotta be smarter than that, okay?" He grabbed on to Connor's shoulders and gave him a little shake. "Can you do that for me?"_

_Connor quickly nodded. It was Cooper who was asking this from him, of course he would do it. "Yeah Coopy. I'll do it I promise."_

Adam frowned when Connor stopped coming towards him. "What are you doing?" he asked impatiently. "Come over here."

Connor shook his head, eyeing Adam warily.

"No? Why not?"

"You're gonna touch me in my no-no places aren't you?"

Adam blinked in surprise. The question itself and the way Connor was staring at him suspiciously just completely threw him off guard. "What the hell are you going on about?" It was hard for him to maintain his temper at the moment. He just wanted Connor to go back to being an idiot so he could swing his axe and decapitate him so it would be done with already.

"My no-no places." Connor took a couple steps back, his suspicious glare quickly turning into an angry one when Adam looked at him like he was stupid. "You want to touch them."

"No I do not. I want to take you to James and Cooper."

"I don't believe you."

"Why the hell not?"

"You don't like me. You don't like me or my daddy or Coopy. Why would you want to help me now?"

"Well we're kind of in a situation that we have to all play nice with each other if we want to all get out of here alive, don't you think?"

Connor wasn't buying that one. Adam now sounded like Cooper when he lied and said he wasn't mad about something when he actually was. "I'll find my daddy and Coopy by myself," he declared. "You can go away now."

Adam's eyes narrowed angrily. That was it. If that was the way Connor was going to be, then he wasn't going to play nice about it. "Oh no Connor. I'm not going away at all. In fact, I'm here to take care of the problem."

Connor frowned at that. "What problem?"

Adam only smirked before whipping the axe out from behind and lunging forward with it. Connor screamed and jumped back, tripping and falling on his back because he stepped on his own shoelaces. Adam tried to go back and swing the axe down right at his face but he rolled out of the way just in time, so the blade of the weapon got stuck in the floor. He quickly scrambled up to his feet and took off as fast as he could.

"Connor…come on Connor don't run away…" Adam yanked the blade out of the floor and started chasing after Connor. "I just want to play with you…"

"LIAR!" Connor looked back at Adam to see how much distance there was between them, which turned out to be a mistake because he had just reached the staircase and ended up missing the very first step and tumbling right down the rest of them.

"Oooh I bet that hurts," Adam said in amusement. He slowed his pace down a bit, enjoying the way Connor was whimpering in pain as he tried to get back up to his feet. Maybe he had this all wrong. Maybe he shouldn't be rushing to off Connor. Watching him all scared and trying to get away was very amusing. This could be a game. A very very fun game…

"Ow ow ow," Connor whimpered under his breath. His entire body was hurting from the fall but he forced himself back up to his feet and started running once more. He had absolutely no idea where he was even going. He was just running blindly, grabbing on to doors and opening them as fast as he could, trying to see if there was anyone anywhere that could help him. "DADDY!" Another door open, another room revealed to be an empty dead end. "COOPER!" Another room, same result. "DADDY!"

"Daddy, Coopy, help me!" Adam was mocking Connor now. The little childish voice he used was so annoying but the fear that was rolling off of him in waves amused him to no end. "Help me help me!"

"SHUT UP!" Connor opened another door and found the bodies of Maryse, Ted and Cody laying there in a bloody mess. He quickly slammed that door shut and tried another one. This time he found Dolph's body. He tried a different one. This time he found Sandy Claws feasting on the Ron and Morrison's decaying flesh. "NOOOOO!" He bolted the rest of the way down the hallway, opening the last door on the left and going in without even paying attention to what it was. It was pitch black once the door was shut and he spent a good half a minute fumbling for the light. When he finally finished, he almost utterly panicked because he was in a closet. But then he noticed the closet had a laundry chute in it and without even thinking twice he opened the door to it and climbed into it feet first. This was definitely a case where his ultra lanky body was going to be his friend. If he were Cooper or James he would have probably gotten stuck in there. He was able to slide right down it though, although it was a lot longer of a drop than he thought it was going to be. He eventually landed on his feet in the basement and even though it felt like he tweaked his ankle during his landing he ignored that as much as he could and forced himself up the stairs and out of there as fast as he could. He wasn't about to hide down there. He had seen enough movies to know that too much creepy shit happened there to do him any good.

"Hello?" Now he was back in the lobby, which was completely empty. "Hello?" He looked all around. There was still no front door and there was absolutely nobody there. "Helllooo?" Still no answer. He sniffled loudly and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. Was he the only one left? It felt like he had been all over the hotel but he couldn't find anyone anywhere.

The sound of soft giggling suddenly caught his attention. "Hello?" The giggling sounded so wrong but Connor was naïve to think that it was just one of the others finding something inappropriately funny. "Hello?" The giggling got louder and it seemed to be coming from behind the receptionist's desk. "Hello? Who's there?" He approached it slowly, rapidly feeling like he shouldn't be doing this. "Hell-"

A very very scary looking clown popped up all of a sudden, giving him a very evil smile. "Hello Connor! Want a balloon animal?" He yanked up Melina's body by the hair with one hand and some of her intestines with his other.

"WAAAHHHHH!"

"Connor…oh Connor…" Adam's voice was getting closer and Connor went to start running again when he came face to face with Lucy, who had a death grip on a very reluctant Mary.

"Come play with us Connor. Forever and ever and-"

"NOOO!" Connor clamped his hands over his ears. "NO NO NO LEAVE ME ALONE!" He took off running once more, wincing with every step because it was hurting his ankle.

"Oh come on Connor, don't you want to play?" Adam gripped his axe more tightly and started moving faster. The fun was starting to wear off for him and he was ready to just end this already. "We can play forever-"

"NOO!" Connor started running faster and ended up tripping and falling when he tried to turn a corner too fast. Instead of tweaking his ankle this time he twisted it and he clutched it as he cried out in pain. "Owie owie owie…" He got back up, hopping on his one good foot until he went into a random room and locked the door behind him. This time he found himself in a bathroom and he hopped over to the sink and opened the cabinet above it so he could try to find something that would help his ankle. He didn't find anything though. He closed the cabinet and took several shaky deep breaths. He could not put any pressure on his ankle really, which was bad. "Ow ow ow," he whimpered. He was trying to force it and it was just causing him even more pain.

CRASH!

Connor screamed and whirled around. Adam was right outside the door, burying the axe into it over and over again. "Stop it!" Connor pleaded. "Stop it stop it go AWAY!" He looked around wildly, realizing that this time there was no laundry chute that could save him this time. He had nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. He was trapped and potentially pretty fucking screwed.

"Here's Addy!" Adam sing songed as he pressed his face up against the hole in the door he made.

Connor shook his head. That fucking Shining movie…he fucking hated it. He hated it beyond what any words could even describe. It was so stupid he wished it had never been made. Stupid Cooper made him watch it. Stupid Lucy was making it come true. Stupid Adam…well he was just stupid to begin with but now he was a thousand times more stupid.

He went to get his knife out of his pocket as Adam reached through the hole in the door but it wasn't there. His eyes widened. His knife. Where was his knife? He started searching his other pockets, becoming scared to death when he couldn't find it. Now what he didn't know was that it had fallen out of his pocket when he had fallen down the stairs earlier. And what he did know was now that he felt absolutely naked without it. He _always_ had it with him. He literally never left home without it and now it was gone and he didn't even know what to do without it.

He wasn't getting any chance to think about it though. Adam was in the room and he was swinging for his head and he yelped and grabbed on to the older man's wrist so he wouldn't get decapitated. Adam growled and shoved him back, both of them falling into the empty bathtub. Connor took the majority of the impact from the fall but he refused to let go of Adam's wrist. He was acting on pure, fear driven instinct and before he even knew what he was doing he had his legs wrapped around Adam's waist to help keep him in place and his teeth had sunk themselves deep into his neck.

The lethal nature of Connor's bites had been debated on numerous occasions by James and Cooper. They didn't know whether it was because his teeth were sharper than most people's or if he had a stronger jaw or something that made him bite harder, but whatever the case was, his play bites were nothing to laugh at and if he was really looking to bite hard? Forget it. He had ripped chunks out of several people's arms and legs and right now he was doing the same thing to Adam's jugular. Blood was filling his mouth and still he bit down harder, not stopping until the axe fell out of Adam's hand and his body was just twitching.

"Ack!" He ripped his head back and spat out the flesh he took with it before pushing Adam off of him and out of the tub. The axe was right next to him and he grabbed it, getting up to his good foot and swinging the weapon down at Adam's prone body, taking off his head with one clean swing and then just repeatedly chopping away out of frustration. "Mother…fucker…hate…you…all…fucking…fuck…fuck…fucking…meanie!" He finally stopped and panted for breath, his eyes on Adam's dismembered corpse and a certain sense of relief washing over him. At least that was over.

"Oh Connor!"

Something sharp pierced through Connor's shoulder, making him scream and drop down to the ground. He looked back and up, his eyes widening at the clown that not only still had Melina for some reason, but also had one hand up by his mouth, licking his blood right off it. "We didn't make our balloon animals yet!"

Connor screamed and darted in between the clown's legs as it tried to get him again, totally forgetting the axe and just hopping up on his one good leg and tearing out of there as fast as possible. The clown watched him go, snickering at first before bursting out into a full fledged laugh that echoed all throughout the hotel.


	23. Wallowing

**A/N: In case anyone has lost track, I've killed 15 of the 30 that started out this story. The ones still standing (for the time being anyway) are Jeff, James, Cooper, Connor, Glenn, Phil, Chris, Evan, Kelly, Natalya, Beth, Michelle, Tiffany, Bryan and Mike. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I make no guarantees on who walks out of this alive…if anyone manages it…**

…

"Fucking fuck fuck fuck!" Phil exclaimed as he looked back to see that the swarm was still chasing them. It felt like they had been running for forever but no matter where or how fast they went, the swarm managed to stay right on their tail. He tightened his grip on Glenn even more, knowing there was really only so much longer his lover could realistically run. Glenn wasn't exactly a spring chicken anymore and having to try to not only run from this shit but carry his injured ass while he did it made for not a good thing at all.

"Come on come on!" Nattie urged. She had taken the lead now with the way Glenn was slowing down the distance was growing between them was getting bigger and bigger. "Come ON!"

"I'm trying!" Glenn wheezed out. He was trying as hard as he could to hide the fact how bad off he was but it was getting harder and harder to do.

Nattie shook her head. She knew Glenn couldn't keep this up so she snatched Phil out of his arms and put him over his shoulders. His added weight was definitely going to slow her down, but she could manage better for the time being. Besides, it wasn't like he was James. Compared to him, Phil was definitely more on the lighter side of things.

If Glenn wasn't in the midst of trying to regain his breath while still running for his life he would have objected to that. But since he was, he swallowed that shit down and kept going. He wouldn't admit it out loud but what she just did had helped him out a bit. That help was only going to go so far though. His lungs were still burning inside of his chest and his legs were angrily protesting him running any further.

"Here!" Nattie hadn't wanted to do this because that meant they were more than likely going to end up trapped there but there really was no more choice in the matter. She grabbed the handle on the nearest door and twisted it, pushing the door open and going inside. "GLENN!"

"I'm coming I'm coming!" He practically threw himself into the room and she slammed the door behind him just in the nick of time. The swarm had just been about to consume them and ended up hitting the door instead. All three of them tensed up, actually expecting them to get through the door and get them. As more and more seconds past by though and that didn't happen, they let out a slow, collective sigh of relief. Nattie went over to the bed and set Phil down on it before collapsing down to the floor, her entire body weak and shaky as she put her hand over her heart. Glenn sank down to the floor as well and he took giant wheezy breaths while trying to collect himself.

Phil winced and sat up, the pain of his leg finally really kicking in now that they actually had a moment to just be still. He always had had a high threshold for pain (it was necessary for not only being a wrestler but being a straightedge one) but this was pretty fucking bad. "Fucking hate this place," he grumbled as he got up on to his good leg and ripped the sheet off the bed. He was going to try to wrap his leg up for the time being. In all actuality, a simple bed sheet wasn't going to do him much good but there was really nothing else available so he was going to just have to make good with what he had.

Glenn caught on to what Phil was doing and he forced himself up to his feet so he could go over there and help him. "Just take it easy-"

"Take it easy?" Phil's olive green eyes flashed dangerously. "Take it easy? Are you fucking kidding me? How the FUCK can I take it easy right now?"

"Well where the fuck is panicking going to get you?" Glenn shot back. His nerves were just as frayed as Phil's were so he wasn't going to take getting yelled at like that.

"I don't know! But you know? Staying calm certainly hasn't fucking got us anywhere either!"

Natalya stared back and forth between the two of them, deciding not to even intervene right at the moment. She had never heard the two of them fight and she knew that it wasn't something that they should be doing, but stopping them right at that moment just felt like too risky of a thing to do.

"So you think freaking out is going to accomplish anything new?" Glenn gripped on to Phil's shoulders as firmly as he could and forced him back on to the bed so he could wrap his leg It wouldn't do any good for protection purposes but he was hoping if he got it tied tight enough it would help keep it in position so Phil wouldn't accidentally move it and make it worse.

"We've got to do SOMETHING different," Phil lamented. "The fucking shit we've been doing now has gotten us nowhere." He winced as Glenn said nothing and continued to work on him. "Why the FUCK don't you know as much about this shit as your brother? Huh? It would be fucking useful if you did." He was being mean he knew it but it was hard for him to care too much at the moment.

Glenn glared at him and shook his head. "His so called "knowledge" didn't do him or any of us any good, now did it? He didn't know how to get us out of here and he ended up getting stabbed by a fucking psychotic BITCH-"

"What the fuck is with her anyway?" Normally Phil didn't interrupt because he knew how much Glenn hated it but once again, it was hard for him to care at the moment. "Is she now like Lucy's little henchmen or something?" He frowned when Glenn immediately started to laugh. "What? What's so funny?"

Glenn just continued to laugh for a moment before pulling himself together in order to answer. "Caroline? Lucy's henchmen?" He stopped to laugh some more. "Phil…that little bitch don't know what it is she's done."

"On a scale of one to ten, how bad is she?" Natalya asked. Caroline was never a subject James talked about. Not ever. He avoided the topic like the plague. The only thing she really knew was that Caroline had given him the scar that was on his throat, although he refused to give her any details on the matter.

"Off the charts really," Glenn replied honestly. "The good news for us is that she'll be after Lawson so as long as we avoid her we'll be fine-and who knows? Maybe Lucy will annoy her and she'll off her and we can get the fuck out of here." That was about the only best case scenario he could come up with at the moment. Otherwise, he knew that they were just fucked.

…

Lucy stormed back into the hotel, tired and dirty from making sure Tiffany was properly buried alive and absolutely fuming. This was HER hotel these was HER game and it was all by HER rules…yet not only was Caroline utterly defying her and not cooperating, but when she had tried to do something about it she had failed. That was what was really bothering her. She had never failed before, not ever. All throughout her existence she had always had the power. But that wasn't the case here. She had thought she had had the power in that situation but Caroline had proven her wrong and had done so quite gleefully.

What really worried her was that when she tried to figure out something to use against the bitch, she had come up with nothing. Usually she could tap the person's mind and get a glimpse of what they feared and she could use that at her will. But when she had did it to Caroline she had gotten nothing. She walked, talked and breathed like a human but beyond anger and hate there was no emotion to her-least of all fear. And without fear Lucy found herself powerless against her. And if she was powerless against her, that meant the hotel and all the horrors inside of it were powerless as well. That meant she could run around doing whatever it was she pleased, which did not set well with Lucy at all.

For a moment she considered tracking down Mary and taking out her frustrations on her to help clear her head. But then she shook that off and headed up the stairs. Picking on Mary got really old after awhile and it wasn't like she could die again. No, if she was going to really clear her head and figure out just how to take care of this Caroline problem she needed a really gorey and nasty death. Let's see who's left here…

…

"SOMEBODY HELP ME!" Tiffany screamed as she beat and scratched at the top of the casket as hard as she could. When she had regained her bearings she had been utterly horrified to realize she was trapped in this coffin. It was a very very little known fact that her most reoccurring nightmare was of being buried alive. She didn't know WHY she had them really; there wasn't a traumatizing event in her life to cause it (unless she repressed it SO much that she had no knowledge of it happening). But now this was her nightmare come to life. "LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!" She beat her fists even harder against the top of the coffin, tears streaming freely down her face. The rational part of her mind was trying to tell her that all this screaming was doing nothing but using up the precious oxygen that she had in there. But her fear and panic was overriding that logic so the screaming and crying continued. "PLEASE! PLEASE SOMEBODY HELP ME PLEASE!"

All that did absolutely no good of course. Nobody could hear her because they weren't around to. She let her hands drop down to her sides and she just bawled her eyes out. The space seemed to be getting smaller and smaller by the second and at first she tried to tell herself that wasn't the case at all. That didn't do a lick of good though. Even if the space wasn't actually getting smaller it still felt like it in her mind and back up her hands went so she could try to push the lid open. "Come on come on come on PLEASE!"

It wasn't budging. She sobbed in frustration and tried beating on it a couple of times. It wasn't budging. She shook her head and began clawing away at it. She was doing it so hard that her fingernails quickly broke but she didn't do so much as flinch. She didn't care if she tore her own fingers off at this point, she had to get out of there. In her nightmares she either managed to claw her way out of her grave or suffocated and died…for obvious reasons, she was hoping she could manage the former here.

…

James's knuckles on his right hand were broken and bleeding from attempting to actually punch his way out of the room. Normally when he did this he could make holes everywhere but this time he couldn't. Either these walls were really strong or he was getting weaker. Either way he was freaking the fuck out. He tried to kick the wall to see if that would get him a different result but it didn't. "Shit!" He kicked it again and then again and again. Still nothing. "Shit shit shit!" He looked around the room helplessly, not really seeing much of anything because he was in a shit state mentally. When he finally managed to focus in some sort of way, his eyes landed on the closet. Caroline had surprised him and Tiffany from there before the two women had crashed out the window. Maybe there was a trap door there or something. He had to at least try to look for one. He couldn't just keep staying there. While this wasn't actually his old house, the very fact that it looked so much like it was just freaking him out beyond the telling of it. He had sworn when he had left he would never go back but here he was…right back in hell. It was not a pleasant feeling to say the least.

He opened the closet and stepped inside, hoping to maybe find an obvious door he could just go through. There wasn't of course; simple and easy was too much to ask here. So he started feeling all around, trying to find any signs of a trap door. The light bulb that was in the closet didn't work so the only light he had was coming from the bedroom. "Come on come on you have to be here…" He shook his head and started trying even harder. "Come ON you fucking-"

The closet door suddenly slammed shut, scaring the fuck out of him and leaving him in total darkness. "Mother FUCKER!" He reached blindly for the door, eventually finding it but unable to open it. "Oh come ON!" He shoved himself up against it but it didn't do so much as budge. "Come on you fucking FUCKING thing!" He shoved himself against it again and still there was nothing. "FUCK!" He smacked his head against the door and took a deep breath, desperately trying to figure out what he needed to do next.

Something sharp suddenly slid across his neck and he hissed in pain as he grabbed it. He couldn't see a damn thing but he knew by just touching it what it was. A fucking wire hanger…fuck how he still hated these things. He couldn't even have them in his house. All the ones he and the boys had at home were plastic. Forty two years later just the sight of them made his chest tighten up in fear. "Fuck you mother fucker." That came out much weaker and shakier than he intended and he went to throw it down to the ground when suddenly it shot out of his hands and the sharp end of it swiped across his cheek. "Fuck!" That stung really bad and he put his hand up to his face, feeling the blood seep against his fingers. "Stupid fucking…" He threw himself against the door harder, becoming more and more frustrated when it still wouldn't budge. "Come onnnn!" He pounded his fists against the door and shook his head. "Come one please fucking open just fucking-"

He suddenly felt the sharp wire digging into his neck, right where his original scar was. He yelped and cursed as he grabbed at it, trying to dig it out of his skin while also trying to ignore the other hangers that were attacking him on their own accord. They scratched at his arms, hands, back and even his face, one of them nearly getting his eye before he jumped back. He raised one of his large arms and started trying to swat them away. He couldn't see, he was trapped and he could barely even breathe he was so freaked out. He started trying to move around to maybe get them away and of course THAT was when he found the trap door. He fell right through it, crashing right down on to the kitchen table. He groaned loudly in pain, just laying there for a moment with one arm raised above his face and the other clutching at his bleeding neck. When he realized that the hangers were gone, he rolled over and started to try to stand up when he saw the feet that were right behind his head. _Oh no…_. As much as he didn't want to he gazed up, looking right into Caroline's unamused face.

"You BROKE the table fatass!" That was about all the warning he got before her foot connected with his face. He felt his nose break on impact but before he could truly mentally comprehend that she kicked him upside the head and knocked him out cold.

…

Never before in his life had Evan been in a situation where the morale was so low. It was so bad that he couldn't even properly describe it. Chris was in the corner of the room with Jeff, trying to talk to the brooding and grieving man while Beth was on the bed with Kelly, absently playing with her hair in order to try to distract the younger woman. Randy was gone. He had disappeared on them and at first they seriously considered trying to find him but then…well then they didn't, to put it bluntly. They were tired, scared and helplessness and hopelessness had firmly settled in. What was the point in doing it? He was probably already dead and even if he wasn't, going out and looking for him was probably just going to get one of (if not all of them) killed.

He put his hands up by his mouth and started biting at his fingernails. It occurred to him that they were all just waiting to die and that deeply unsettled him. He wanted to do something about it because someone needed to but he couldn't. He didn't know what to do and the helplessness made him feel like anything he tried wouldn't make a bit of difference. He sighed and spit out the nail that was in his mouth, wordlessly getting up and going to the bathroom. He had to piss and also just get away from the oppressive vibes that had taken over the room. They were just becoming too much to stand anymore.

Once he was done doing his business he spent as much time as the sink as he could, not only washing his hand but rinsing his face off as well. It was a little easier to breathe in here but not much. There was still the question of what they were going to do and unfortunately, there was no answer anywhere in sight. "Come on think," he whispered under his breath. "Think Evan think!" He bowed his head down and rubbed his eyes, completely unaware of Lucy, who had just appeared behind him with a knife raised high above her head and an evil smile firmly plastered on her face.


	24. Two Down

Evan blindly reached for the towel hanging for the rack and used it to dry his face off. He breathed in as he did it and got a good whiff of the towel. It smelled old and musty and it made him gag a bit. "Yuck." He put it back and he stared at himself in the mirror, his skin suddenly feeling gross because of the smell of the towel. "Fuck it." He turned the water back on and rinsed his face off yet again, this time using his shirt to dry himself off. He started to head towards the door when he saw Lucy standing there out of the corner of his eye. She was unbelievably close and she had a knife raised high above her head.

"Hello Evy, want to play?"

Evan's response was to scream and try to run for the door. He never made it though. She buried the knife deep into his lower back, slicing through his spine and making her shriek with laughter as he tumbled down to the floor.

…

Beth felt a chill go straight up her spine as Evan's scream rang out for all of them to hear. Kelly's eyes just about bugged out of her head and her whole body began to tremble as she clung to Beth for dear life. Chris and Jeff were both frozen where they were, both not even able to say anything for several seconds. "Evan?" Chris finally managed to say.

"Stay here," Beth said as she got up and tried to get Kelly off her. Kelly however, was not about to budge.

"No no no don't go in there," the younger woman begged. "Don't go in there it's going to be bad it is-"

Evan screamed again and Jeff finally forced himself to move, going right up to the door and trying to get it open. "Fuck it won't open." He twisted the handle more and threw his shoulder against it to find that it won't budge. "Chris help me."

Chris wasn't exactly looking all that eager to do so but he did go over to Jeff and started trying to force the door open. Beth was trying to get Kelly off of her somehow so she could help too but Kelly still wouldn't let go of her. "Kelly come on please-"

"No," Kelly refused. She started trembling even more when Beth tried harder to get out of her grasp. "No don't go over no no no."

"Kelly…" Beth just about jumped out of her skin when the bathroom door finally opened with a loud bang. Jeff and Chris both let out short shocked screams and that prompted Beth to literally drag Kelly along with her so she could peer in through the doorway. Kelly started screaming too and Beth's own scream got caught up in the large lump that formed in her throat. Lucy was standing there, looking at them with a maniacal look on her face and drenched in Evan's blood. Evan was laying face first on the floor, a knife sticking out of his back. His dead eyes were staring at their feet and Beth put her hand over her mouth and shook her head. She still couldn't even scream. She just felt horribly numb to the situation. What she was seeing now didn't even feel real. It was just another chapter in this fucking nightmare.

"Hi guys!" Lucy's ultra cheery tone was just so wrong and she knew it too. The wrongness was encouraging her to keep it up. "You wanna play?"

Jeff's eyes narrowed and before the others knew what he was doing, he was grabbing Lucy roughly and literally picking her up and smashing her against the wall. She was completely taken off guard by that and he had such a tight grip on her arms that she couldn't simply stab him as well. "What the fuck do you want?" he asked as he kept smashing her against the wall again and again. He couldn't even think he was so fucking angry. His brother was dead. A nice chunk of his friends were dead. And for what? Her own entertainment? A sick and twisted version of fun and games in this hotel of fucking horrors? It made him sick. It made him so sick he couldn't even see straight.

"Jeff! Jeff kill her! Kill her kill her kill her!" Chris was practically jumping up and down as he yelled that. This was their chance. This was their chance to just kill this bitch and end all of this madness. It had to be done it HAD to.

Lucy's eyes narrowed and that was the last Jeff saw before the entire room went black on him. "Oh nice," he growled. He tightened his grip on her to make sure she didn't get away. "You think turning out the lights is going to scare us at this point?"

Chris, Beth and Kelly exchanged confused glances. They had absolutely no idea what Jeff was going on about. The lights hadn't gone out at all.

Lucy let out a tiny giggle. "Nobody turned off the lights silly. I don't have to go with those kind of cheap scares. I can do much much better than that."

A horrible sinking feeling went through Jeff's stomach. If the lights weren't off then why couldn't he see? The answer was blossoming inside of his brain and he didn't want it to. He was trying as hard as he possibly could to deny the very possibility of it but the rising panic inside of him made that impossible. He was blind. He was fucking _blind_ the bitch blinded him. He felt her slip out of his grasp and he felt someone else grab him and he screamed, completely freaking out simply because he couldn't see who it was.

"Jeff!" Chris struggled to keep his hold on the younger man. "Jeff it's me! It's me!"

Jeff wasn't listening. He had slipped into full panic mode and Chris couldn't blame him. His eyes had cataracts on them now, rendering him blind. "Jeff!" Chris tried raising his voice in hopes that he could get through to Jeff somehow. "Jeff!"

Lucy smirked and crawled over to the bathtub and climbed into it. The thought of just knifing the other four crossed her mind but it went away pretty quickly. This game of hers wasn't getting boring yet. Blinding Jeff actually just added a whole new dimension of fun into the whole thing. "You know, don't think that this little setback will stop him from living a full, productive life during the rest of his stay here. Blindness can be adjusted to…just ask Mary."

The pipes began to hiss loudly, stopping Chris in his tracks as he attempted to take a step towards her. She grinned and gave him a little wave before disappearing right into thin air. The second she was gone the pipes burst, but instead of water blood came pouring out of them.

"WAHHH!" Kelly screamed as she and Beth jumped back away from the doorway. Chris let out a stream of curses as he put the still freaking Jeff over his shoulders and ran out of the room. They were both drenched in blood and he had to start trying to wipe it out of his eyes so he could see better.

"What's happening?" Jeff asked, finally saying something coherent. "Chris what's happening what's happening?"

"Uh…" Chris didn't want to tell him. If he told him it would make him freak-out more and that was the last thing he wanted.

A loud bang made them all just about jump out of their skin and now the blood was in the bedroom, pouring down at such a fast rate that the room started to flood within seconds. "Jesus Christ!" Beth could barely even see but she started moving towards the door. Kelly of all people was taking the lead and she ripped the door open and launched herself out of there as hard as she could, actually hitting the wall shoulder first pretty hard. "You okay?" Beth asked once she, Chris and Jeff were out as well. They were all so drenched that their hair had turned blood red and there wasn't a clean spot on them to use to wipe their faces off.

Kelly nodded, although she was rubbing it gingerly as she got up to her feet. "I'm-" She stopped mid-sentence and her eyes went to something down at the end of the hallway. The way her mouth dropped open and her eyes started bugging out of her head made both Beth and Chris's stomachs sink even lower than they already were. They didn't even want to know. They had to look though. It was like a train wreck they couldn't just not look. Of course, once they did look, they regretted it. Seeing a giant black swarm coming their way really was not anything they wanted to see.

"Oh come on!" Beth was actually on the verge of tears just because she was just so tired of all of this shit. It all just kept coming and coming and coming and she really felt like she was going to lose her mind completely really really soon. "What the FUCK is THAT?"

"What the fuck is what?" Jeff asked. His voice was a couple octaves higher than normal. "What was WHAT?"

Chris's response was just to start running the other direction. Jeff was yelling at him and demanding to know what the hell was going on but Chris was more intent on getting them away than trying to answer that. Beth was right on her heels and Kelly wasn't too far behind at first, but then she tripped and fell, crashing hard on her hands when she put them out in front of her to catch her as she fell. The swarm surrounded her all at once, biting and stinging her all over and making her let out ear piercing shrieks. Beth skidded to a halt and turned back, swatting the bugs away and grabbing Kelly by the wrist and yanking her back up to her feet. "Come ON!" She was literally dragging Kelly behind her, catching back up with Chris and not daring to look back to see how close the swarm was behind them.

A door opened up ahead of them and Natalya poked her head up. "Oh my God!"

"MOVE!" Chris bellowed. He went barreling into the room with Jeff, Nattie, barely even having time to jump out of the way. Beth and Kelly were in moments later and Beth kicked the door shut and put her body up against it just in case the things tried to get in.

"Uh…" Phil stared at them with wide eyes while Glenn could only blink and cock his head to the side.

Beth gave them an awkward wave. "…Hi…."

…

"You know, this place is really slacking on us," Joie said with an impatient sigh. He was sitting on Cooper's lap, a flower in his one hand and the fingers on his other tapping Cooper's shoulder impatiently. "I mean really, you would have thought _something_ would have come out to get you by now. But noooo! There's been nothing. Nadda, zero, zilch. Very very anticlimactic really." He started pulling the petals off the flower for his own amusement. "You love me…you love me not. You love me…you love me not. You love me…"

Cooper tried to just block him out and focus on trying to somehow get out of this chair. His broken wrist was really hindering his attempts but he kept trying anyway. He HAD to get the fuck out of there somehow. This thing masquerading as his dead boyfriend was clearly not playing with a full deck. It would NOT shut up and even though he KNEW it wasn't Joie, it sounded so much like him that it was truly fucking with his mind big time.

"…you love me not. You love me!" The petals were gone now and Joie was overjoyed. "You love me you really love me!"

Cooper grunted as Joie threw his arms around him tightly. "I knew you loved me I knew it!* He planted a lot of kisses all over Cooper's cheek and nuzzled his neck. "You know, it's maybe not a bad thing nothing has found us yet. I mean I want you to die so you can be with me forever like we promised each other but there's still so much we can do while you're still alive…all warm and hot blooded…"

Cooper's entire body stiffened as hands were going places they sure as hell were not welcome to. "Stop it," he growled.

"Stop what?" Joie rubbed Cooper's chest slowly and kissed his neck.

"That!" Cooper tried to somehow get him off. "You're not him damn it! You're not him you fucking bastard quit fucking playing!" Tears were starting to blur his vision but he quickly blinked them away as best as he could. "You're not him. My Joie is DEAD. You're just a fucking THING playing with me."

"Cooper…" Joie shook his head. "It's me baby. It's me it really-"

"NO!" Cooper screamed the word and closed his eyes tightly and shook his head violently. "STOP IT FUCKING STOP IT! YOU'RE NOT JOIE YOU'RE NOT FUCKING JOIE!"

The weight on his lap suddenly disappeared and he opened his eyes to find the thing gone. His brow furrowed in confusion and he looked all around, not seeing it anywhere. He waited pensively for several minutes, expecting it to come right back and drive him even further up the wall. When that didn't happen he slowly let out a long sigh of relief and started trying even harder to get the fuck out of that chair. He wanted to be long gone before it or something else came along and got a hold of him.

…

"I can't breathe," Mike complained as he, Bryan and Michelle finally stopped running. They were in a hallway he think he recognized but he couldn't even be sure anymore. His surroundings were just blurring together for him at this point. "I can't…I can't breathe."

"But you have enough air to tell us that?" Bryan asked. He wasn't anywhere near as winded as Mike was.

"Don't even start," Michelle snapped as Mike started to shoot back with something really nasty. "Just don't or I'll kick you BOTH in the face and leave you here to die."

"And go off on your own? Oh yeah, because THAT will work out well for you." Mike rolled his eyes and leaned up against the wall for support. "Why don't you-"

"WAHHH!" Connor came barreling towards them, jumping on to Bryan and knocking the smaller man off his feet.

"Holy shit!" Mike shook his head and winced at the thud of them hitting the ground. That looked like it hurt.

"Hi Connor," Bryan said with a wince. "I'm happy to see you too. Now can you help me up?"

Connor did that but he didn't let Bryan go. He was clinging to him for dear life despite the best attempts to get him off. "I want my daddy," he informed him. "I want him I do I want him bad. You give me my daddy."

"We don't even know where he is," Mike pointed out.

"Or if he's even alive," Michelle added.

Connor's face fell and then turned into a very angry scowl. "I wasn't talking to either of YOU!"

"Well it's not like HE is going to be able to help you," Michelle shot back.

"Didn't you just tell me and Mike not to start shit?" Bryan asked incredulously. He could not understand why she was feeling the need to take this kind of attitude with Connor. It not only wasn't helpful at the moment but it was just mean.

Connor scowled even more and let go of Bryan so he could get in Michelle's face. Michelle didn't back down. He wasn't James who could scare just about anyone with a look. She wasn't about to act intimidated to him.

"Guys come on, don't do this," Bryan pleaded. He tried to grab Connor and pull him back. "Just-"

"Connnnnorrrr! Oh Connnnorrrr…"

The wall behind them had a hole busted right through it as Sandy Claws came lumbering right through it, his large claws taking a huge chunk out of Bryan's side. Mike, Connor and Michelle all screamed and Bryan knew within seconds of the blood gushing out of him that this was it for him. He was in so much pain he couldn't even imagine running as fast as he needed and he couldn't rely on the other three to save him. He was just hosed.

"Run!" he shouted to Connor weakly. Sandy Claws had moved past him to get to Connor and he forced himself to jump on the creature's back and wrap his arms around him in a sleeper hold. "Go go go!" His grip on the creature wasn't anywhere near as strong as he needed it to be. His shirt was soaked with his own blood and the pain was so intense he just wanted to pass out from it.

Connor whimpered and took off, Mike and Michelle going with him. Hardly surprising but Bryan found himself actually hoping that they would get themselves offed horribly anyway. He had never wished death on anyone before ever and he never would gain.

He grunted in pain as Sandy Claws grabbed him by the head and ripped him off, smashing him down to the ground. He kicked his foot out instinctively, catching the creature right in the nose. The blow barely fazed it though and a second later its fist went right through Bryan's stomach, grabbing on to his spinal cord and ripping it out with one big yank.


	25. Under the Skin

"Breathe Jeff, breathe," Chris said as he rubbed the younger man's back and tried in vain to get him to calm down somehow.

"What the hell happened to him?" Glenn asked. He had left Phil's side for the moment so he could get a closer look at Jeff's now blind eyes.

Chris shook his head. "Lucy put the whammy on him. He went after her and she just…she did THAT!"

Jeff flinched violently at the spike in Chris's tone. He couldn't really think coherently he was so freaked out. The complete and total blindness had caused his other senses to suddenly go into hyper drive. Anyone talking sounded a hundred times louder than they actually were and it was hard to tell where the voices were coming from. The only reason he remotely knew Chris's location was because he was touching him and he knew Glenn was close just because the hairs on the back of his neck were standing straight up like they always did when he was near. Glenn always creeped him out for some reason, even after all the years of knowing him. He got the same vibe from Mark a lot too so maybe it was just a family thing with them.

"We gotta do something," Chris went on. They couldn't just let Jeff stay this way. They HAD to do something to fix this. Jeff could NOT stay this way. "You know any like fucking like…voodoo or something that can fix this?"

"No," Glenn replied honestly. "I don't." He knew that was the complete opposite of being comforting and helpful but saying anything different would be a total lie.

"What about Mark?" Chris pressed on. "He might-" he stopped when he remembered that Mark was nowhere to be found. "Where is he?" he asked.

A clouded look came over Glenn's face and he glanced back at Phil and Natalya, who were on the bed along with Beth and Kelly. "He's dead," he finally replied shortly.

Chris's eyes just about popped out of his head and his jaw dropped. "He's dead?" That was just way way too hard for him to fathom. This was Mark they were talking about after all.

"Did I stutter?" Glenn snapped. "He's dead. Lawson's crazy ass mother came back from the grave and killed him and now Lawson's up shit creek if he's alive and I don't know WHAT the fuck happened to Tiffany." If she wasn't dead he would be majorly surprised. Alone or with Lawson, he didn't have any big hopes for her survival. And James was just fucked in all kinds of way. He was the only one alive that had any idea what Caroline was truly capable of and even he didn't know as much as James did.

Jeff let out a small groan and pulled his knees up to his chest so he could rest his forehead on them. "Why?" he asked in a small voice.

"Why what?" Glenn asked.

"Why any of it?" Beth asked. "All this…WHY is it fucking happening?"

"Lucy's a fear demon," Phil answered. When Beth and the others had all come in he had forgotten that they didn't know the deal like him, Glenn and Nattie did. "Apparently the real Lucy died like forever ago from the fever when she was three. Then the fear demon came back as "her" and hijacked Mary's body and started all of this shit over a hundred years ago. That old guy we saw when we came in was a ghost and he was Mary and Lucy's grandpa. He tried to do an exorcism and he and Mary both died."

"But they're still hanging around," Chris said as he tried to process all of this. "Why? And why couldn't he tell us to run the hell away when we got the chance?"

"My guess? He couldn't. I think Lucy has control over him at least somewhat. And Mary thinks she's actually Lucy still." Phil shifted around on the bed, wincing at the pain that shot through his leg. "Point is though, the bitch has been feeding off all the fear she's caused for the past hundred years and she's feeding off us now."

A long silence followed that. That had to sink into Chris and Beth's minds and Jeff was trying to also let it sink in although it was harder for him because his mind was still in panic mode. The only person not listening to a single word of this was Kelly. She was looking herself over as much as she could, examining each and every bite and sting mark on her. They were red and puffy but the actual looks of them wasn't what was really bothering her. No it was the way they felt. They itched horribly and it literally felt like the bugs were underneath her skin, crawling all over the place. She tried to tell herself she was imagining it, she tried to scratch to help it but nothing was working.

"Kelly stop," Beth ordered, grabbing on to her hands so she could make her stop scratching. The younger woman had failed to realize that she was scratching so hard and so much that she was leaving a trail of marks behind that were about to start bleeding if she kept it up.

"I can't." Kelly managed to wiggle out of Beth's grasp so she could start itching once more. "They're in me I can't…" She shook her head and started scratching harder.

"What's in you?" Natalya asked as she and Beth now grabbed her hands. "What are you talking about?"

"The bugs." Kelly was trying much harder to get away from them so she could go back to scratching. Now that she had stopped the feeling of something crawling around under her skin was getting stronger and stronger. "They're IN me."

"They're in you?" Phil repeated incredulously. "What the hell does that mean?"

"It means they're IN me!" Kelly repeated, her voice spiking in a shriek that made them all cringe. "What the FUCK do you think it means?"

"Ssshhh…" Beth shook her head and pulled Kelly into a tight embrace. She had to keep her somewhat calm and keep her from scratching, which Kelly was fighting pretty hard to do. "There's not-" She stopped as she caught something scurrying down Kelly's legs. It was underneath her skin so all she could see was a bump and her eyes just about popped out of her head. At first she thought she had just imagined it but then she looked at Natalya and Phil. Their eyes were on Kelly's leg as well and she knew they had seen it too. _Uh oh…_

…

Tiffany's nails were completely broken off and her fingertips and knuckles were a bloody mess. She had clawed and hit at casket with every ounce of strength she had and she refused to slow down, even though the muscles in her arms were begging her to. She had no idea just how long she had been trapped in this coffin but she knew that she really really had to get the fuck out of there. There was no way she had too much more oxygen left. There just wasn't.

She clawed away harder, feeling the wood above her maybe giving away finally. She pounded on it like crazy, finally busting a hole through it. The arm that went through started to bleed like crazy and when she moved it back into the casket it not only started to bleed more but dirt began falling into the hole she made. She hit the wood again with both hands this time, making a bigger hole that she could start forcing her body out of. The dirt was heavy around her and she found it hard to claw and move the way she needed to to get the hell out of there. She tried though. She tried so fucking hard. She held her breath and kept her eyes tightly shut as she clawed her way up towards the surface. She was there she had to be almost there…

Something suddenly wrapped itself around her ankle and pulled it back down. She couldn't see what it was but it felt like a root or something like that. She whimpered and tried to pull herself free from it. It only wrapped itself around her more tightly and actually started to pull her back down. She started fighting harder, her mind racing in panic. She was so close this couldn't be happening. She was almost free she had to just fight a little harder.

The root yanked her almost all the way down back into the coffin. Her eyes involuntarily opened and she couldn't see a thing. The soil was just getting in them and she clawed upwards even more desperately, her lungs starting to burn. The root suddenly let go but the damage was done. She couldn't hold her breath anymore and her body made her inhale on instinct. Dirt filled her mouth instantly and suddenly it was all pushing itself down into her throat and lungs and her eyes rolled into the back of her head as the life went out of her body.

…

Blood trickling down James's throat was what woke him up. He coughed violently and turned over so he could gag and spit it back up. His head hurt so badly that his vision was blurry and it felt like he was throw up (and the coughing and gagging really was NOT helping that). He was trying to remember what the hell had happened but it was hard to even think. He looked around at his surroundings and his heart skipped several beats. He was on the floor in Caroline's bedroom. Words couldn't even describe the jolt of fear that went through him. This was bad. Very very bad. He had to get out of there.

He pushed himself up on to his hands and knees and was about to try to get to his feet when a sharp kick to the ribs sent him crashing back down. He grunted in pain and tried to roll away, only to get caught by the back of the neck and held firmly in place.

"Where do you think you're going?" Caroline asked. She had a straightened out wire hanger in her hands and she was holding the sharp end of it to his throat. "Huh? Didn't I ever teach you any manners?"

James couldn't even speak. His voice was just totally failing him and his eyes were on the hanger. She realized this of course and with an evil smirk she poked the hanger into him even harder, nearly making it go right though his skin.

"What's the matter James?" She spat out his name like it was poison or something. "Is it this? Are you scared of this? You don't like this by your throat do you?" She moved it away from his throat and placed it right up by his left eye. "What about here? You like it here better?"

James flinched violently. He knew that if she really wanted to, she would stick that right into his eye socket and stab his eye out.

"No?" She didn't get an answer from him and she smacked him across the face. "HEY! Fucking TALK you idiot!"

"Get that thing away from me," he finally managed to say. His voice still wasn't working right so he didn't even sound like himself now.

"This thing? This right here?" The wire hanger was back down at his throat. She was just LOVING this. As much as she had always hated him, tormenting him and making his life a complete and utter living hell was something she immensely enjoyed. "What if I don't want to take it away? What if I want to do this…" The hanger started to be dragged across his throat and it broke him from the fear induced stillness he had been under. He literally jumped back like he had been burned and clutched at his throat for dear life. He was bleeding but it was more of a superficial wound than anything else. However, given the circumstances, it felt much much worse than that.

"Fuck you're pathetic." Caroline shook her head in disgust and rose up to her feet. She shook her head and glared at him. "And your brats are just the same-"

"Leave them ALONE! You don't know-"

"Oh I know. I know a lot more than you think." She turned her back to him so he couldn't see her hand slipping into her pocket as she went. "I know all about the unofficial brat and the mongoloid…but they don't know about me do they? You took me out of the equation before they were even born. Maybe it's time to change that. Maybe it's time for them to meet _Grandma_."

James panicked at those words. He knew damn well what she was capable of and he got on his feet and lunged at her to stop her from doing what she had planned-which was exactly what she wanted. Before he could get his hands on her she took out a syringe full of some sort of black liquid and jabbed it into his neck, injecting it right into his bloodstream without even knowing what the fuck it was. When he had been unconscious she had gone rummaging through the bathroom and found it in the medicine cabinet in a little bottle. The label was torn off in several places and the parts left indicated it was probably a drug of some sort. As to why the drug and the syringe was there was really nothing she was too concerned about. She had just snagged it all on a whim for the use she saw fit. Why would she care what it was or what it could do? It wasn't going into her. It was going into the large, pathetic waste of space that happened to be her son. Honestly, she hoped it killed him in a very slow, painful manner. That would be quite entertaining, she knew that for sure.

James yelped in pain and stumbled back, ripping the syringe out of him and dropping it down to the floor. His heart rate was speeding up already and his vision was blurrier than what it was when he had first woken up. "Wha…what did you…" He could barely breathe now. It felt like a tremendous weight was sitting on his chest, making it hard for him to even breathe. He rubbed his eyes furiously and that made his vision clear, but immediately after he wished it hadn't. Caroline now was sporting bright red eyes, a set of razor sharp teeth and had actually grown about another three feet within the span of seconds.

Caroline chuckled as James screamed and fell back on his ass while scrambling back up against the wall. Shit, this was going to be even more entertaining than she originally thought.


	26. Breaking Point

"Do you see him?" Connor asked as he, Michelle and Mike came to a stop so they could catch their breath. It hadn't seemed like Sandy Claws had been chasing them but that wasn't exactly comforting, considering the fact that he had jumped out of nowhere to kill Bryan. "Do you see him do you see him do you see him?"

"No," Michelle replied curtly. "We don't."

"Are you sure?" Connor asked. He hugged himself tightly, completely missing the glares Mike and Michelle were giving him.

"If we saw him, we would be running." Michelle gathered up her long blonde hair and held it up in a ponytail so she could cool the back of her neck, which was covered in a thin layer of sweat. "Idiot."

Connor pouted and gave her an angry look. "Mean!"

Mike rolled his eyes. "Hey, at least she didn't lead that thing right to us!" He saw Connor's expression turn into one of confusion and that made him roll his eyes again. "YOU led that thing right to us you idiot!"

"I did NOT!" Connor denied. He shook his head emphatically to help make his point.

"You sure about that? That thing is after YOU! Way I see it, where you go, that thing is sure to follow."

"That's not my fault!" Connor balled up his fists and stomped his foot. "It's not!"

"We really don't care," Michelle informed him. She and Mike were both now backing away from him like he had a disease or something. "The further away we are from you, the safer we are from that thing."

"What-" Connor's eyes just about bugged out of his head completely when he realized that they were trying to leave him there by himself. "No no no!" He practically tripped over himself to jump in their way and stop them. "No no NO! You can't leave me here!"

"The hell we can't," Mike replied. He and Michelle tried to get around him but Connor jumped back in their way. "Hey! Retard! Get the fuck out of our way!"

"NO!" Connor shouted stubbornly. "NO NO NO! You can't leave me you can't-"

"Connnnorrrrrr…"

"Oh shit!" Michelle and Mike took off as fast as they could, leaving Connor rooted in the spot with fear.

"No no no no no," Connor shook his head and looked around. Sandy Claws sounded so close but he couldn't see him. He was looking all around but he couldn't see him anywhere. "No no no no no no no-"

"Connnooorrrrrr." The voice sounded closer than ever but the owner of it was still completely out of sight.

"Stop it!" Connor ordered. He wrapped his arms tightly around himself and shook his head. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing straight up and his heart was beating so hard and fast it was hurting inside of his chest. Tears were stinging the back of his eyes but they wouldn't come out. It was almost like he was just too tired to even cry. He was actually tired of all of this really. All this fear, all this torment; he hated it. It had completely taken everything out of him.

"Connorrrr-"

"STOP IT! Stop it stop it STOP IT!" Connor put his hands over his ears and shook his head. "I HATE you leave me alone!"

The voice didn't speak again. He kept his hands over his ears for a little longer, hesitantly taking them away when things stayed silent. The quietness was far from comforting. Even if Sandy Claws wasn't talking to him he could still feel the monster watching him. The thing was watching him from every direction and he tried to make himself as small as possible, which really didn't work at all. "What do you want?" he asked, his voice cracking in fear. "What do you WANT?"

The lights flickered slightly and he could have sworn he heard the thing breathing loudly. "Go away!" he moaned miserably. He was stumbling away blindly, the tears that had threatened to come out earlier finally leaving his eyes. "Please! Leave me alone! Leave-

Two strong clawed hands grabbed him from behind and he screamed. He felt the hot, putrid breath on his neck and in a panic he threw his head back hard, head butting the creature in the face. As the thing howled in pain he managed to get out of its grip and tried to make a break for it. He didn't get very far at all. Sandy Claws grabbed on to his ankle and violently yanked him down on the ground face first. He screamed and started kicking with his free foot while clawing at the floor desperately to try to get the hell away.

"Connor!" Sandy Claws grunted and pulled Connor directly underneath him. Connor managed to roll himself on to his back and got his hands so he could grab Sandy Claws's throat and prevent the thing from ripping out his jugular with his throat. The creature was snarling and snapping it's teeth, actually drooling on Connor it was so desperate to get at him. Connor was trying to get his feet under it so he could kick it off but there was too much weight on them and he couldn't do it. "STOP!" he begged, his arms starting to feel weak and shaky already. His chest had tightened up to the point where he couldn't even breathe. "STOP STOP STOP!"

His yelling had no effect whatsoever. It actually seemed to make the thing try even harder to rip his throat out. Sharp claws dug into chest and he screamed in pain. Sandy Claws started trying to dig into his chest even more and in a moment of blind panic he brought his own head up and sank his teeth into his tormenter's neck. Blood started to pour into his mouth but it wasn't like any blood he had tasted before. It was absolutely rancid and he quickly yanked his head back and pushed the bleeding Sandy Claws off of him so he could get up on his hands and knees and cough and gag until he threw up.

Sandy Claws made a gurgling noise and tried to reach for Connor yet again. Connor was able to kick its hand away this time though. The bite he had delivered wasn't the deadly one he had been going for but it had done just enough damage to allow Connor to scramble into the nearest room and lock the door behind him.

"Connnnorrrr…" it choked out weakly. "Connnnorrrr…"

"Stooooooppp," Connor whined. He rested his head back against the door and pulled his knees up to his chest. He didn't know what to hell to do. He couldn't keep running but he sure as hell didn't want to stay and try to fight. So what the hell did he do? "DADDY!" he yelled. His voice wasn't nearly as loud as he wanted it to be but he was trying anyway. "COOPY! HELP ME!"

…

"God damn mother fucker…" The rest of the curses Cooper were muttering were completely incoherent as he continued to struggle to get out of his binds. He had been making some progress but it hadn't been going as fast as he needed it to. The broken wrist was what was really slowing him down. If it weren't for that he would have more than likely been completely freed by that point. "Come on come on come _on_…" He doubled his efforts, his face white in pain because he was aggravating the hell out of his injury. It did pay off though because he was finally able to get his good hand free and with that he got the rest of himself free as well.

He got up to his feet and clutched his wrist tight against his chest, sucking in harsh breaths through his clenched teeth. He was free; the question was now what did he do next? He looked around the room he was in. It seemed harmless enough but he didn't trust it. He just wanted to find James and Connor get the hell out of there.

"Dad? Connor?" He left the room and looked around, creeped out by the empty hallway he walked into. "Dad? Connor?" No answer. He looked both ways, trying to figure out which direction he should go in. "DAD! CONNOR!"

"They can't hear you."

Cooper just about jumped out of his skin at the voice. "What the-" He turned to face Mary and glared at her while trying to ignore the way his heart had pretty much leapt right into his throat. "Where are they?" he finally managed to ask when he found the ability to speak again.

Mary looked down and started wringing her hands together at the question. "I'm not supposed to tell…"

Cooper growled. That hadn't been remotely close to the answer he was looking for. "I don't give a _fuck_ about what you're supposed to do." He got down on his knees so he could look her in the eyes and she flinched at the absolutely murderous glare he gave her. "You tell me where they are NOW! You understand me?"

"I…I…she'll get mad!" She started to cry at the thought of that but Cooper felt no sympathy for her whatsoever. He didn't know what the deal was between her and Lucy and he didn't care.

"_She_ is going to be the least of your problems if you don't tell me what I want to know." He didn't know what he could possibly do to a ghost but he would figure something out.

Mary let out a choked sob before rubbing her eyes with both of her hands. "S-s-she brought the bad lady back to scare your d-d-daddy." She sniffled and rubbed her eyes some more before putting her hands down and clutching at her dress. "But sh-sh-she can't control the bad lady."

"What bad lady?" He didn't get an immediate answer and his glare hardened. "WHAT BAD LADY?"

"I'm trying to remember her name!" Mary shrieked as she shrank back in fright. "Sh-sh-she's big and scary looking and…" her voice trailed off for a moment and her eyes widened as the name came back to her. "Caroline! That's what Lucy said her name was."

Cooper felt the blood drain out of his face. "Caroline?" James had never gone into details about all the stuff Caroline had done to him as a kid but really, it had never been necessary. The mere mention of his mother clearly did shit to James and Cooper could only imagine what was going on now. "She's with Dad now?"

Mary nodded.

"What about Connor?"

"Sandy Claws." She pointed down the hallway to their left. "He's hiding. Sandy Claws is going to get him though. He made him mad."

"Oh Jesus fucking Christ…" Cooper swallowed hard. He knew who he had to go after first. "Take me to Connor," he ordered. Whatever trouble James was in, Cooper was hoping he could handle it on his own for the time being. He had to go save Connor.

"But-"

"Take me to Connor NOW!"

…

"_BOY!"_

_James's heart skipped about a dozen beats at that call. He had just snuck in through his bedroom window because he needed to get some stuff for him and Annabelle. They had been avoiding home as much as possible because Caroline had been on an even bigger war path than usual. They didn't really know why that was and knowing her, there probably was no one particular reason for it. _

_He tried to get out of dodge by climbing back out the window but he didn't move nearly fast enough. Caroline came bursting through the door and she managed to grab him by the hair and drag him all the way back into the room. "And WHERE do you think you're going?" she asked dangerously._

"_I-ow ow ow ow!" He winced and tried to get her to loosen her grip somehow. Despite being fifteen and having a good half a foot on her in height, she still had the ability to make him feel not only like a small child but also tinier than a little piece of dirt. "Mom!"_

_Caroline's grip on him tightened even more. "That fat fuck Bearer called again." She had her face so close to his that the strong smell of scotch on her breath was making his eyes water uncontrollably. "You want to know what he said?" When he didn't answer fast enough for her she slapped him across the face. "YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT HE SAID?"_

"_What did he say?" he asked reluctantly. His ears were actually ringing from how loud she had just yelled. _

"_He BITCHED about you for fucking EVER! All those "cute" little stunts you've been pulling…" She shook her head and let go of his hair so she could grab his throat. "You want to know what I have to say to that?"_

Caroline watched in amusement as James's head rocked to the side from a blow nobody was giving him. Finger shaped bruises were rapidly becoming clearer and clearer on his neck. Whatever she had injected him with was not only making him hallucinate, but was making it so physical effects from them manifested on him. It was easily the most entertaining thing she had seen in years.

"Stop it. Mom stop-" He yelped, his head slamming back against the wall hard enough to make the picture frames on it rattle. "Mark did it not-" Before he could finish that sentence he went flying across the room, landing face first down on the ground.

"Oooh that's gotta hurt," Caroline said under her breath. Her lips were starting to twitch into a very very faint smile. The smile disappeared though when she saw him clutching at the scar on his neck, his blood spilling out from between his fingers. "Oh come on! That shit again?"

He didn't even begin to hear her. All the shit was he was seeing and reliving was assaulting him so fast it was all running together and leaving him barely functional.

_Annabelle and Jacob were both screaming somewhere but James couldn't even begin to focus on them. He was too busy trying to crawl across the floor, desperate to get away from the kicks Caroline was raining down on him. What had started as a fight between her and Joseph had turned into a fight between her and him and when she had come at him the first time he had put his hands up and had actually popped her in the mouth. To say that had been a mistake would be an understatement. She had become completely unhinged and now he was legitimately scared that he wouldn't make it through the night. The kicks she was delivering had broken several of his ribs and blood was coming up from inside of him and filling his mouth. He was too afraid to spit it out on the carpet though. He had seen Jacob do that once and that had resulted it in her kicking him right in the mouth and knocking out two teeth._

"_You want to hit me? Huh? You want to fucking hit me again boy?" She stomped on his hand as hard as she could. "Why don't you try it again? Why don't you fucking do it again?"_

_He shook his head and pulled his hand against his chest, using his other arm to try to scoot himself away. "I'm sorry!" Yes he was begging off. He fucking had to. She was a complete maniac and he knew she didn't have a problem with killing him. She had only made it clear that she would be happier if he was dead any chance she could. "I'm sorry Momma! I didn't mean it I'm sorry…"_

"I'm sorry…I didn't mean it I'm sorry…Momma please…"

Caroline rolled her eyes as she knelt down right by James. "You're sorry? You're sorry? What the hell is sorry going to do for me? Huh?" She got right down in his face, smirking as he let out a short scream. "If you think you're sorry now, think how sorry you'll be when I get my hands on your brats."

"_Connor! Cooper!" James was running blind through the darkness, his heart pounding so hard it felt like it was coming up through his throat. His mind couldn't focus on any real coherent thought. He was just moving, knowing that he had to find his boys before Caroline did._

"They can't hear you," Caroline informed him lazily. "They're not even here." She smirked. "If they were I would take the unofficial brat and beat his pretty little face in so badly that you would barely be able to recognize him.

"_COOPER! CONNOR!" James was freaking even more. "BOYS!" He propelled himself forward even faster and ended up tripping and falling over something. "Fuck!" He winced in pain and looked back to see what he had fallen over. What he saw pretty much made him die on the spot. Cooper was laying there in a pool of his own blood, his face so badly bashed in that the only reason he recognized him at all was because of the clothes he was wearing. "NO!"_

"Yes you stupid brat," Caroline sneered. She chuckled dryly as James gathered up his "dead" son into his arms, the blood staining his shirt and soaking right on through. "And then the mongoloid…" she chuckled again "well I think he should get the hanger treatment since he actually is your son.

_Connor was screaming at the top of his lungs and James reluctantly let Cooper go so he could follow the sounds of the screams. "Connor!" His legs were completely weak but he forced himself to go faster, skidding to a stop when he saw Caroline letting Connor's now lifeless body fall to the ground, the wire hanger still stuck in his neck. "NO!"_

"Oh yes." This was too much. Caroline felt like she was going to die of laughter. James was a complete mess. She couldn't even understand what he was saying anymore. He really thought what he was seeing was real and why not play along with it? It was too good to pass up. "Your boys are gone." She shoved him away as he tried to grab at her. "You got them killed. Congratulations James. You're just as worthless as a parent as you were a son." She slapped him upside the head and got back up to her feet, snickering to herself as she walked off to go find herself a bottle of scotch.


	27. Let's Make a Deal

"Get it out of me!" Kelly moaned as she watched the thing inside her leg crawl all around. The others had tried to keep her from seeing it but she had. She had seen it and she was freaking big time. What if it wasn't just this one? What if it was several and nobody else had seen them yet? Her skin was crawling at the very thought of it and that helped her to believe that was really the case. She had been attacked by a giant swarm of the bugs and if one could get under her skin, why not more? A whole bunch of them probably were inside of her, crawling and maybe even laying eggs so more could join the party. "Get them out get them out get them out!"

"Chill woman!" Phil ordered while Glenn searched around for something to use to actually do the cutting. They weren't the Lawsons it wasn't like they went around carrying knives with them. "We're working on it."

Both Natalya and Beth gave him a dirty look for that comment. "What?" he said innocently. "What did I say?"

"You're a dick," Natalya informed him while Beth simply punched him on the arm as hard as she could.

"Ow!" Phil rubbed his arm and glared at the Glamazon. "Watch it! I'm injured as it is right now!"

"You'll be more injured if you don't SHUT UP!" Kelly was in tears and ready to just rip Phil's head right off his body. The whole "Chill woman!" comment had failed to go over with her very well. Phil didn't get it. He didn't know how this felt. "Just shut up!"

"Okay okay! I'm shutting up!" Phil put his hands up in surrender. "Just calm down."

She sniffled loudly and started scratching herself as hard as she could. She was scratching everywhere because she did not know where to even start. They were everywhere and she just wanted to rip her skin with her own hands to get them out. She couldn't keep waiting for the others to help her. They clearly wouldn't be getting the job done any time soon.

"Kelly stop," Beth ordered. She grabbed the younger woman's wrists and pulled her hands away from her body. Almost immediately Kelly started screaming and fighting her like crazy. Beth's eyes widened in surprise and she almost lost her grip but managed to regain it once Natalya stepped in and helped her with the holding. "Kelly!"

"Let me go!" Kelly yelled. She was trying even harder to fight but she was no match for both Nattie and Beth. They were just way too strong. "LET ME GO!"

"Glenn…seriously dude, can you hurry up with your search?" Chris asked as he watched all of this go on. He was sitting with Jeff's head in his lap, lightly stroking his boyfriend's hair. "She's losing her mind over there."

"I'm fucking trying," Glenn growled. He really was pretty much tearing the room apart so he could find something sharp to help her with. "It's not my fault I'm not finding anything." He got down on his hands and knees and actually started searching under the bed. He managed to grab on to something and for a moment, he could actually picture himself being dragged under the bed and getting ripped apart by some boogeyman. Luckily for him he didn't, and he ended up pulling a switchblade out from under there. "Got something." He had a funny feeling about it now but that had to be ignored. If he didn't put this to use, Kelly was going to lose her mind even more. "This is gonna hurt," he warned her. "And we don't have anything to-"

"I don't care," Kelly said quickly. She stopped trying to fight Beth and Nattie and gave him a pleading look. "Just do it! Please!"

"Hold her." He made sure Beth and Nattie tightened their grips even more and motioned for Phil to help too. "Here." He took off his shirt and handed to her. "Bite it."

Sniffling loudly she did what he said and braced herself as he started searching her legs. It didn't take him long to find it. The little fucking thing was racing up her left thigh and he cut her quick and deep, ignoring her agonized screams and Phil's loud "Gross!" commentary. Blood poured out of her wound along with the bug, and he quickly grabbed the thing and smushed it with his own fingers. "Is that it?" he asked.

Kelly shook her head and he sighed and started looking for more. He immediately found one on her right calf…then two on both her arms, one on her side and two on her back. By the time he was done cutting the bed was just drenched in her blood and his shirt had fallen out of her mouth because she just didn't have the strength to keep biting down on it. The others were still holding her but not as tightly. They could see she was weakening from blood loss so there was really no need for them to hold her as tightly.

"I think I've got them," Glenn said, sighing as he just stared at the young woman's blood soaked body. He should have stopped sooner than now quite frankly, but every time he would even think about stopping he would see another one and she would freak so he just kept going and going.

Kelly shook her head. He had gotten some of them yes, but there were still more. She could feel one crawling across her throat and another one moving around behind her eye. "No," she croaked out. "No no there's still…they're still…"

"Kelly we don't see anymore," Beth said gently. "And he can't keep cutting you. You've lost too much blood as it is."

Kelly whimpered and sobbed quietly. She didn't care. Natalya had gotten up to grab her some towels or something to use to try to stop the bleeding and she wanted to tell her not to bother because they weren't done yet. Better to lose the blood than let these things stay in her. She couldn't bear it for another second. They were going for her brain and they would nest there, spawning thousands of more bugs and they would be in every inch of her then. She didn't know whether she actually knew this or if it was her mind getting carried away with her. She didn't care quite frankly. She was too busy freaking and with a burst of strength she didn't know she had she grabbed the knife from Glenn and tried to drive it into herself.

"Kelly no!" Beth and Glenn both grabbed her to stop her. "Kelly don't-"

Shrieking almost inhumanly Kelly kicked Glenn in between the legs and actually overpowered Beth, driving the blade into the bigger woman's neck.

"HOLY SHIT!" Phil yelled.

Kelly yanked the knife out of Beth's neck and immediately drove it into her own eye without any kind of hesitation. Phil and Nattie both screamed while Chris and Glenn could only watch in shocked horror as the young blonde slumped over and fell off the bed in a bloody heap.

…

Mary led the way and Cooper followed close behind. His heart was pounding super hard inside of his chest but he was trying to ignore it. He had to focus on getting to Connor. He had to save Connor. He had his knife in his hand but unfortunately, he only had only one good hand. His broken wrist had pretty much rendered the hand attached to it useless. How he planned on fighting Sandy Claws with only one useful hand was beyond him but he was going to try it anyway. Even if this thing ended up killing him he was going to make sure to take it with him.

"There." Mary stopped and pointed up ahead. Sandy Claws was right up ahead, so focused on breaking down the door Connor was hiding behind that it didn't notice them. "There he is." She looked around nervously and hugged herself tight. "I have to go now. If she finds out I helped you…" She hugged herself tighter and disappeared without another word.

Cooper shook his head and gripped his knife more tightly. He was already moving forward as quietly as he could, hoping to keep the element of surprise. It was about the best advantage he had. _Don't look over here you ugly son of a bitch, don't look over here…_

Sandy Claws didn't look over at him but he did something worse; he got his clawed fist through the door and started to rip the damn thing apart. Connor screamed in terror and the sneak attack was completely forgotten by Cooper. Instead he ran as fast as he could and launched himself at the creature, sending both of them crashing violently to the ground in the process. He ended up landing right on his broken wrist, causing him to let out a howl of pain. Sandy Claws snarled and sank his teeth into Cooper's arm, which him yell even louder.

…

Inside the room he was hiding in Connor's eyes widened in shock. "Coopy?"

…

Cooper ripped his arm out of Sandy's mouth, his face white with pain. His stomach was churning and he just wanted to throw up from it. He fought that urge though. He was barely keeping this fucker from moving its head up and ripping his throat right out, he didn't have time to dwell on his own pain. Tightening his grip on his knife he drove it as deep as he could into Sandy Claws's chest. The creature let out a high pitched squeal of pain and knocked Cooper off of it with one arm, digging its claws into his face and dragging them across in the process. For a moment, Cooper seriously thought his eye had been taken out. Thankfully that wasn't the case but he didn't get to celebrate that fact at all. Somehow, this fucking thing was trying to get back up to it's feet and get at him once again. "God damn it, why won't you DIE?" He kicked it right in the face when it was almost up, sending it back down once more. "Fucking DIE!" He yanked the knife back out and drove it back in, over and over and over again. In its neck, its chest, anywhere he could get it. "Fucking DIE FUCKING DIE YOU FUCKING FUCKING FUCK!"

"Coopy!"

Cooper drove the knife down one last time and then tried to catch his breath. He was covered in Sandy Claws's blood, which wasn't exactly pleasant. But given that Sandy Claws was finally fucking dead, he was way more relieved about that than worried about the unpleasant shit he was feeling. "Fucking mother fucker." He gave the bastard thing one last kick before looking at Connor. Connor was staring at Sandy Claws's body with wide eyes and Cooper immediately grabbed his younger brother and pulled him into a tight embrace. "He's gone," he said quietly, making sure Connor was looking him eye to eye as he said that. "He's fucking gone okay? He's not coming back. You understand me?"

Connor nodded slowly. "Where's Daddy?" he asked in a small voice. Cooper wouldn't have heard him if he wasn't so close to him.

Cooper shook his head. "I'm not entirely sure. But we're going to find him, okay? We're going to find him and everything's going to be alright. You understand me?" Neither one of them really believed that but Connor nodded anyway. "Good."

…

"Well…we found the lobby," Michelle said as she and Mike came down the stairs together. After ditching Connor they had found their way back here. The good about that was that they were no long wandering aimlessly through the halls that looked exactly the same. Michelle was convinced they had gone in circles at least a dozen times during the entire time they had been upstairs. The bad though was that there was still no front door to go out of. And the thing with Kofi getting chopped in half by the window when he tried to escape that way hadn't been forgotten by either one of them.

"Yeah, lot of good it's going to do us," Mike said with a snort. "Fucking still caged in here like a couple of fucking animals." He kicked the wall in frustration before leaning against it and sliding down to the floor. The momentary anger that had flared up in him had disappeared and now he just looked exhausted and scared to death. "I can't do this anymore. I fucking can't. I gotta get out of here."

Michelle knew that feeling all too well. She didn't give a damn about anyone else left, not even Mike. She was just tired of dealing with this shit. She was tired of the running and hiding and having a million fucking things jump out at them at every corner. No more. She couldn't take it. She just wanted to get the fuck out of here.

"You know…if you really really want out, I think I can help with that."

Both Michelle and Mike looked over and saw Lucy standing there just a few feet away from them. She had her hands behind her back and was rocking slightly on her feet. "That's only if you really really want it though."

Michelle's eyes narrowed in distrust. "Where exactly are you going with this?"

Lucy smirked softly. "Well you see, I need a little problem taken care of. Now I would do it myself but I'm interested to see if you two can earn your freedom. Kill my little problem and I'll let the both of you walk free."

Michelle and Mike exchanged a look. Neither one of them thought they could trust her but they didn't want to refuse either. That seemed to be an even stupider idea than trusting her. "What problem are you having exactly?" Mike asked slowly.

"Caroline Lawson." Just the way Lucy said it let them know how much she really did not like her. "Fucking bitch isn't playing by my rules. She has to go. Again I say I would do it myself but you know what? I like to think I'm fair. Find her, kill her and you two walk free." She smiled as they exchanged another look. She really did want them to kill Caroline but there was no actual plan to let them go. If they succeeded then great. Her problem was taken care of and she would kill them right after. If they failed, then either Caroline would kill them or she would. Whichever one came first really. "We've got a deal?"

"…Yeah," Mike said while Michelle just nodded. "We've got a deal."


	28. Mind Games

James laid on the floor, curled up in the fetal position and finally completely still except for the occasional shudder. The shit Caroline had put in him hadn't worn off by any means. It wasn't working quite as strongly but it was still going. He just was too far gone to notice anymore though. In his mind, his sons were both dead. They were both dead and that had finished him. Mark dying he could have survived. He really could have. But Cooper and Connor? No. Those boys meant the world to him and now they were gone. So he thought anyway. He had no idea that Caroline hadn't actually killed Cooper and Connor. She certainly wanted to and she would if she could actually get her hands on them. But at this point she didn't actually know whether they were alive or dead or not. And it didn't matter really. James believing them to be dead was good enough for now.

Caroline leaned back in her chair and drummed her fingers against the arms of it. "You know, you're getting kind of boring," she warned James. She took a drink of her scotch and was not pleased to see that it was the last of it. "Maybe you should do something about that."

James didn't even seem to hear her. He just stayed there on the ground, not moving a muscle.

"Hey! Retard!" She tossed her empty bottle of scotch at him. "I'm fucking talking to you!"

James's body jerked as the bottle hit him but he still didn't acknowledge her. He just laid there, a shuddering silent lug on the floor. She looked for something else to throw at him. There was nothing within reach. Growling she got up and went over there and kicked him in the ribs. "Hey! Fucker! SAY something!"

Very small grunt of pain but that almost just seemed like a reflex. Curling her lips in distaste she knelt down and slapped him across the face. "Can you hear me retard?" She slapped him again. "Did you go deaf in all of this?"

He looked at her finally but his gaze was just flat. Empty. Dead. He should kill her. He believed her to be the killer of his children and he know she killed Mark but he was just too weak to make a move. The beatings that he had relived had taken their toll physically and just the thought of moving hurt him. It was easier to stay still and just wait for her to kill him. He wanted her to do it. He knew she wanted to. It was just a matter of getting her to stop tormenting him and just do it already.

She tilted her head to the side and just stared at him for the longest time. She wasn't an idiot, she had figured out what he was asking for without even saying it. She wasn't going to give it to him though. Not now anyway. She wasn't quite done with him yet. "Fine. Be that way then. Pathetic little shit." She got back up to her feet and started looking around the room. She needed to figure out something to do to him. Something new. At this point she could kick and hit him until the cows came home but it wouldn't matter anymore. He wouldn't feel it and she didn't like that. If she was going to do something she wanted him to feel it. She wanted him to feel ALL of it.

…

"Why can't this just end already?" Chris asked Glenn tiredly as they moved Beth and Kelly's bodies to the bathroom so they all didn't have to look at them. "I mean, I know you said this bitch feeds on fear but why can't she just end this already? Why the fuck keep dragging this on and on and on? Is she like, trying to drive us all insane or something?"

Glenn could only shrug his shoulders. He really didn't know the answer to that and he was too tired and worn out to speculate.

"We're not going to get out of here are we?" Chris wanted _some_ kind of answer out of Glenn. Maybe it was all just moot at this point. He already felt like he knew the answers already. He was just asking to ask. "Do you think we can get Jeff's sight back somehow? He can't fucking stay blind."

"How do you think we're going to get it back for him though?" Glenn asked. The bathroom door wasn't shut so they were trying to keep their voices really down so that they wouldn't be overheard.

"I don't know. That's why I asked _you_."

Glenn shook his head in disbelief. "I've got no answers here Chris. No solutions, no suggestions beyond putting bullets in our own brain just to end it quick. I'm not Mark. I don't do this supernatural shit and I don't think even he would know what the fuck to do to get us out of this. We're fucked. That's just the bottom line here."

That was pretty much the answer Chris was expecting but it was still completely discouraging. He looked down at Kelly and Beth's bodies, more scared of just how numb he was at this point. Maybe he hadn't ever really been friends with these girls but he had worked with them for the past few years and he should have felt some kind of loss for them, shouldn't he? His conscience was telling him that he should but he just couldn't muster enough feeling to do it

Glenn led Chris out of the bathroom and shut the door, glancing at the others on the bed. Phil was trying to adjust himself without fucking up his broken leg and Natalya had Jeff's head in her lap, singing something under her breath to help keep him calm. Chris immediately went over to him and took him from her, cooing in his ear when he jerked in surprise.

"Sssshhhh it's me. It's just me."

Jeff relaxed at the sound of Chris's voice. "Chris…" He reached out and gently touched the face of the only thing that was really keeping him sane right now. This blindness was really starting to drive him mad. His vision was something he had always taken for granted and now that it was gone…he couldn't spend much longer like this. Being able to hear what was going on but not see it wasn't something he could cope with. Especially not now. "I can't do this anymore. I can't I can't I CAN'T-"

"Sssshhhhh," Chris said quickly. He pressed his forehead against Jeff's and kept shushing him until he fell silent. "You'll get through this. I'll get you through this. I promise I'll get you through this." Maybe that was an empty promise but it was all Chris had to offer. Jeff seemed to accept it and nestled his head against his chest so he could listen to the beating of his heart.

Phil and Natalya both looked away from the couple as Glenn just stood there, brooding at the desperation in the room. He knew they would start panicking soon. For all they knew, it was down to just them. And Jeff and Phil were pretty much of no use to them anymore. Jeff was blind as a bat and Phil only had one good leg. They couldn't defend themselves against shit if they tried.

The light in the room flickered, making everyone but Jeff look up at it. They stared at it with bated breath, hoping against hope it was just a fuck up with the electricity. It flickered again though and then again…and then again…and then it went out.

"Oohhhhh fuck me," Phil groaned. "Fuck me fuck me fuuuuuck me…"

"What?" Jeff said, his voice spiking with panic. "What is it? What's going on?"

"Power's out," Chris said, trying to keep his voice as calm as possible.

"Are you SURE? Because that's what I thought and-"

"It's the light," Phil said gruffly. "We all saw it flickering and going out."

"And you didn't SAY anything to me?"

"Well it's not like YOU can see it!"

"Phil!" Chris and Nattie both growled at the same time.

"Shut up!" Glenn snapped at them all. He had thought he heard something but he couldn't tell for sure with all of them going on like that. "All of you just shut up!"

They all fell silent at his harsh tone and he strained his ear to listen for the sound again. For several long seconds there was just silence. Maybe he had just imagined it. He knew that couldn't be the case but he still hoped-

_Creeeaaaaaak_.

They all just about jumped out of their skins. "What the hell was that?" Phil asked. "What the hell was that?"

Nobody had an answer. Glenn clenched his mouth tightly shut and squinted his eyes, hoping to see something despite the darkness. There was nothing to see though. He could certainly _smell_ something though. Gasoline. He shuddered involuntarily at the smell. The story of him being trapped in the fire that killed his parents were true, although unlike what WWE said, it was James that had started it, not Mark (one of the many reasons he hated his guts). Sometimes at night he would dream he was back there and he could feel the flames engulfing him, charring his skin…the smell of it overpowering the gasoline…

Natalya took a deep breath to try to keep her calm but coughed suddenly when the smell of burning flesh invaded her nostrils so strongly she could fucking taste it. "What-" she turned her head to look for the source and found it in two seconds. Flames were engulfing Glenn and not even he realized it until she screamed. Once he did though…she hadn't heard anyone scream like that before in her life and she never wanted to hear anything like it again. Horrifying would be an understatement.

"PUT HIM OUT!" Phil screamed, hopping off the bed on to his good leg and grabbing one of the blankets. "PUT HIM OUT PUT HIM OUT!"

Chris, who was the closest to Glenn, snatched the blanket out of Phil's hand and started trying to beat the fire on Glenn out. Nattie grabbed both Jeff and Phil and dragged them to the door, which thankfully opened for them. "Let me go!" Phil yelled as she got him out to the hallway. "What the fuck are you doing? Let me go!"

"Chris!" Jeff yelled, looking all around because he couldn't tell where his boyfriend was. "CHRIS!"

Chris kept trying to beat the flames on Glenn but it was apparently clear there was no doing that. He was a real life human torch and Chris tried to just drop the blanket and run. He didn't get far though. The screaming Glenn grabbed him before he could make it to the door and fell on him. Chris shrieked in agony which made Jeff scream and ask what the hell was going on. Neither Nattie or Phil could answer him. They just watched in horror as Chris was engulfed by the flames as well and just kept staring, their feet rooted to the spot until the door slammed shut on its own and the screams of both Chris and Glenn ended abruptly.

…

"Are you ready for this?" Mike whispered to Michelle as they crept through the hallway. Lucy had been nice enough to provide them both with axes and tell them what room Caroline was supposed to be in. All they had to do now was get there, make with the killing and they would be free. It sounded easy enough although Michelle's palms were definitely sweating more than a little bit. They didn't exactly have a great plan or anything. They either had to go with just barging into the room and go in swinging or try to draw her out somehow. The problem with the latter was that they didn't even know her and didn't know what would draw her out exactly. And if they couldn't draw her out, then they would completely ruin any element of surprise they had.

Michelle nodded slowly.

"Good because if you fuck this up-"

"Me fuck it up? Believe me, out of the two of us here, you're more likely to fuck it up."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Well-ow!" Mike got one of his feet stepped on and he gave Michelle the dirtiest look he could muster. The look she gave him in return was even dirtier and he reluctantly fell silent-for about three seconds. Sadly it was kind of a personal record for him. "Well how are we going to do this then?" At least he was talking quieter. "You're the fucking former school teacher, you should be doing the thinking here."

"I am," she assured him. "I'm not stupid enough to trust it to _you _to make one. Now shut up and let me think."

He started to say some smartass comment to that but an elbow to his gut effectively shut him up once more. She had to make a decision. Charge in or draw her out. The decision was harder than it really should have been.

_**Draw her out.**_

Michelle jumped about a foot in the air. "Who said that?" She looked around wildly. "Hello?"

Mike looked at her like she was crazy. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I heard a voice."

"So you call out "hello, who's there?" to it? Don't you know that's like a majorly BAD idea?"

**Ssssshhhh pretty girl we don't want to hear you.**

_**Oh no no no. We want to HELP you. **_

"Help me?"

"Seriously, WHO are you talking to? You're freaking me out here dude."

She slapped him on the chest to make him keep quiet.

**Use the boys as bait.**

_**Mean Grandma wants them dead.**_

**Use them to get to her.**

"But we don't HAVE them."

**So PRETEND you silly girl. It's not that hard.**

_**Yes. PRETEND. Your life depends on it.**_

Michelle nodded along and turned to Mike, who really thought she had lost all of her marbles. "I've got an idea."

…

"You know…it's no secret that I didn't want to have you," Caroline said as she lazily cut into James's arm. She had his knife and a thing of bleach to pour into any wounds she made ready in case she decided to use it. In the course of getting that bleach though, an idea had popped up into her head that she couldn't even begin to pass up on. "I never wanted ANY of you kids. Fucking little wastes of spaces…" she shook her head in disgust. "You were the biggest waste of space of all but the thing is, maybe there's hope for you." No there wasn't and if he were in his right state of mind he would have realized she was just trying to set him up. "Maybe if you can uh…prove your worth to me maybe I'll bring the unofficial one and the mongoloid back as a reward." She grabbed James by the back of his neck and made him sit up. "I was brought back. I'm not some fucking illusion or monster this hotel created. I'm the real thing and I know the secret to bringing them back." No she didn't. She didn't know a fucking thing but James didn't know that. A flicker of hope rose in his eyes and it was so very hard for her not to laugh it.

"Connor!" a girl's voice called out. "Connor come here! Quit hiding in there! This isn't a game!"

James frowned and looked towards the door. "Con-"

"He's DEAD you IDIOT!" Caroline literally punched him upside the head for attempting to speak. "Whoever thinks they're looking for him is getting fucking tricked." She got up to her feet and headed to the door. "I'll straighten this out." She couldn't have some asshole ruining the little game she had just set up. That shit wasn't going to fly with her at all.

…

Mike kept a tight grip on the axe as he tried to peek out of the very slightly open door he was hiding behind. He could see Michelle standing next to the door of another room, making a big scene of trying to "draw" Connor out of the room. She had insisted on using the idiot as bait would work, even though they didn't know where he was or whether he was still alive or not. He hoped that she was right. They were going to be in trouble if she wasn't.

"Connor!" Michelle yelled louder. "Connor come out PLEASE! This isn't FUNNY sweetheart!"

"God you sound so fake…" Mike muttered under his breath. He went on to further berate her in his own head but stopped when he heard footsteps coming. _Oh shit, here we go…_

…

Caroline followed the sound of the voice to around the corner and glared at the skinny blonde woman she found there. "What in the HELL are you doing?"

Michelle jumped a little bit and turned to face the woman who had spoken. "I um…I'm trying to get my friend to come out of here." She was sizing the woman up as she spoke. She was only a couple inches taller than Michelle herself and she was just as skinny as she was, maybe even slightly more so. The thing that really struck her though was this woman's eyes. There was anger in them yet it was just so cold. Like there was nothing real behind that anger. It threw her for one hell of a loop. "He's scared he won't-"

"He's not in there." It was supposed to be said just matter of factly but Caroline couldn't hide the anger and contempt in her voice.

"Sure he is," Michelle insisted. She could see Mike creeping out from the room he had been hiding in. She just had to keep Caroline's attention on her a little bit longer. "How would you know he's not?"

Caroline's eyes narrowed and she was just about to take a step towards the blonde when she heard the floor creak behind her. Immediately she turned around and saw a guy with ridiculous looking hair standing behind her holding an axe like he was about to fucking swing it at her. "WHAT the HELL do you thing YOU'RE doing?"

Mike froze up like a kid who's hand had just gotten caught in the cookie jar. Behind Caroline's back Michelle was motioning frantically just to do it already. It had to be done or they wouldn't be freed. But he couldn't move. He wanted to move but he felt like if he moved her gaze would get even more fierce and he might literally burst into flames because of it. What he didn't realize though was that not answering her was even worse than anything he could have said. His silence was taken as a blatant sign of disrespect and without any kind of warning or hesitation she drove James's knife deep into Mike's throat. Blood spurted out and his eyes just about bugged out of his head. The axe fell from his hands and it only took a few seconds for him to bleed out and die. Michelle screamed at the top of her lungs and tried to back away, only to trip over her own feet and fall back on her ass. "Oh god," she sobbed as she scrambled back up to her feet. "Oh god oh go oh god…"

Caroline rolled her eyes and grabbed the fallen axe as she yanked the knife out of Mike's neck and pocketed it. She wasn't about to let Michelle get away. Oh no, she was too pissed for that. She chased right after the blonde, swinging the axe when she caught up to her and drove it into her leg with as much force as she could. There was the sick sound of blade meeting bone and Michelle screamed in agony as she crumpled down to the floor. "Where did you think YOU were going?" Caroline asked nastily. She grabbed Michelle by the hair and started dragging her back to the room she had James in, not even bothering to get the axe out of her leg first. "Huh? Where are you off to in such a fucking hurry?"

"I'm sorry!" Michelle said desperately. She had her hands up by her hair, trying to hold on to it so it didn't get yanked out. Her leg hurt so bad she couldn't even stand it. "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm SORRY! PLEASE I'M SORRY!"

"You're sorry? You're SORRY?" Caroline dragged her into the room and kicked the door shut. "James! This little cunt right here just tried to kill me and you know what she said to me? That she's SORRY!" She slammed Michelle's head down on to the floor, a blow hard enough to daze her but not knock her out completely. "She fucking tried to KILL me." She got right in James's face and he flinched back violently. "What are you going to DO about it James?" She took his knife out of her pocket and handed it to him. "What will you do to save your brats?"

"James please!" Michelle moaned, trying to scoot back towards the door despite the horrendous pain she was in. "Please help me please…"

James shook his head and tightened his grip on the knife. He hated Michelle, hated her with a passion…it was hard for him to focus on anything right now but he could focus on that and comprehend the fact that it was her or his boys. Her or his boys…it wasn't a hard pick. He grabbed the leg that had the axe in it and dragged her back to him, slamming his knife into her chest and cutting her off mid-scream. Her blood quickly covered his hand but he barely even felt it. He just looked at Caroline for approval. She nodded briefly at him, purely to sucker him in even more. _This shit is WAY too easy…_


	29. Family Reunion

**They failed…**

Lucy scowled. "I'm aware of that," she said shortly. Her little fists were balled up at her sides and she was pacing back and forth like a caged animal. She had been hoping Mike and Michelle had enough brain power between the two of them to figure out a way to kill Caroline. Clearly though she had put way too much faith in their abilities and now she had to figure out another plan. Her first thought was to just take a knife and stab the bitch herself but she couldn't. The bitch didn't feel fear so there was nothing she could directly do to her. She hated that fucking rule but everyone had their limitations, even her. Usually though, that was never an issue. Every other person she had come had a fear of something or at least had the capacity to feel it. Caroline was the sole anomaly Lucy had ever come across.

_**What are you going to do now?**_

She growled at the question and the voices wisely chose to stop talking. She had to come up with a new plan. Just giving up and letting Caroline run amuck was not what she wanted to do. She had no control over her so if there was no control, the bitch had to go. Question was, how was she gonna make sure it was done right this time?

She stopped pacing back and forth and started going through who was all left here in the hotel. She needed someone more physically capable and more intelligent so the job was actually done correctly. Unfortunately, there weren't very many options for her to choose from. They were either injured, too stupid to do it right, not stupid enough to go along with what she said like Mike and Michelle or just a complete mind fucked mess. Not exactly ideal candidates anywhere in the bunch.

_**Master-**_

"What?" she snapped. "What is it now?"

_**They're on the move.**_

She frowned at that. "Who's on the move?"

**All of them.**

_**What do you want us to do?**_

That question was mulled over for a moment before being answered. "Make sure they get to the lobby. Then leave them to me." She had no idea what she was going to do exactly but she would come up with something. This game she had been playing had been going on long enough. It was time to come up with a big finish.

…

Natalya's arms were starting to get tired from dragging both Phil and Jeff around but she just ignored her discomfort as much as she could. She had to keep moving. Yes it seemed pointless at this point but she couldn't bring herself to just stay still. She would rather die trying to do something rather than just staying still like a sitting duck. Unfortunately, the dead weight she was carrying didn't seem to have the same idea she did. They weren't even like attempting to walk anymore. She was just literally dragging the both of them around and finally, by the time she got them into the lobby, she had to set them both down on the nearest couch to give herself a little rest. "Guys you gotta work with me here," she told them. "You can't just be dead weight on me."

"What's the point in even trying to run?" Phil asked in a dull voice. "I mean really. We're better off just trying to find a gun and blowing our brains out with it."

The look Nattie gave him for that didn't even faze him and she sighed and looked over at Jeff instead. Jeff's head was lolled to the side and she gently moved it back so she could get a look at his face. "Jeff?"

He gave her no response. Nobody had flat out told him Chris was dead (and they definitely didn't go into detail on how it happened) but he knew his boyfriend was gone. And that had been the final straw that had broken his back. Losing his brother had fucked him up. Losing his eyesight had fucked him up even more. Losing Chris though…it had just been too much for him to take. He had pretty much just shut down on them. "Jeff?" Nattie was trying again even though she already knew she wasn't going to get a response. "Jeff?"

"You think there's a gun around here somewhere?" Phil asked. It wasn't clear whether he was actually asking her or just thinking out loud. "I mean, there's a lot of stuff here so it's not hard to think-"

"I'm not helping you look for a gun to kill yourself with," Nattie snapped, cutting him off before he could even finish the sentence.

"I'll find it myself then."

"How are you going to do that? You only have one good leg to go on."

"I'll figure out how to do it," Phil countered. "Just watch-" A loud growling noise caught both of their attention and he frowned at it. "Tell me that was your stomach."

She shook her head. "It wasn't…"

They both turned about ten shades of pale and looked towards the source of the growling. The dogs that had torn apart Dolph earlier were making their way down the stairs, their eyes focused right on them and their teeth bared menacingly. "Oh god…" Natalya said under her breath.

"How about we try to find that gun now?" Phil said nervously. He tried to push himself up on to his good leg but lost his balance and fell back down again. "I think we could really fucking use it."

Natalya agreed but the issue was, she had no idea where to even look for one, if there was one even remotely near them. She did start to move so she could find something to use to protect them with but the instant she started to move the dogs growled loudly and advancing towards them. "Shit shit shit…"

…

Caroline was contemplating what she wanted to get James to do next when she heard the dogs growling. She stopped in her tracks and cocked her head to the side as she listened more carefully. Fucking dogs. She hated them. She hated all animals actually but dogs in particular irritated her more than anything else. She glanced back at James, who was following her around like a big dumb dog. The physical effects of whatever she gave him seemed to have worn out but mentally he was still pretty fucked up. He was quiet though, which was a welcome change. "Kill the mutts," she growled at him. "Fucking shut the bastard things up for good."

James started to move forward but he wasn't going fast enough for Caroline's taste so she slapped him really hard upside the head. "Now god damn it!" He moved faster then and she rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Fucking idiot."

…

Both Natalya and Phil's hearts were beating hard and fast inside of their chests. They were staying as still as possible because so far, the slightest movements were making the dogs growl and act like they were going to pounce. Why they hadn't just done it already was beyond either one of them though. Nattie couldn't even think of a reasonable explanation as to why they hadn't been ripped apart yet. All she could really do was stare at the dogs, barely even able to breathe. Jeff seemed unaware of what was going on around him or maybe he just didn't care enough to react to what he was hearing. He probably wanted it at this point.

A loud yelping noise caught their attention and Nattie and Phil looked up in time to see James standing up at the top of the staircase, stomping on one of the dogs and tossing another one down the stairs. Given how well she knew him and his love for animals, it was hard for her to watch him do that, even knowing that these dogs were evil and wanted to kill her. Phil didn't have the same issue though.

"Get them!" he yelled, practically bouncing up and down in his spot. "Come on! I'm actually fucking happy to see you for once! Do NOT let me down!"

James didn't act like he heard Phil at all. The rest of the dogs were coming at him at once and out came his knife, which got driven into the closest dog's neck. "Jesus Christ!" Phil yelled, one of his hands going over his mouth as two of the dogs bit James's legs and brought him down to his knees. "Fucking sick dude!"

Natalya could only wince as she watched James fight with the dogs. Something was wrong with this situation but it took her a bit to figure out what it was. Finally she realized that it was James himself. Something was off about him. She couldn't say exactly what it was; it was more of a vibe thing than anything else. Maybe it was the animalistic way he was fighting the dogs. As viciously as they were trying to tear him apart, he was just as viciously killing them. It didn't seem like he was even feeling the bites he was receiving. He just kept stabbing, kicking and stomping until finally, there were no more dogs left. He was left just sitting there on the stairs, a complete bloody mess who still had the knife gripped so tightly in his hands that his knuckles were white underneath the blood on them.

"Holy fuck," Phil said, actually laughing he was so relieved that James succeeded with that. "Dude, I might seriously kiss you right now."

James didn't acknowledge Phil at all, which wasn't like him to say the least. He just was looking back up the stairs, not even getting up or trying to wipe some of the blood off of himself. "James?" Natalya went over to him and crouched down by his side. "Uncle James?" She reached out to touch him and he flinched violently. "Hey!" She shook her head. "It's me! It's Nattie. I'm not going to hurt you." She shook her head some more and turned his head so he would actually look at her. "It's me. It's me."

He blinked a couple of times, his body relaxing a bit when his brain processed that it indeed was her. His mouth opened to say something but suddenly he stopped and his entire body tensed up once more. She followed his gaze upwards and saw Caroline standing there, staring down at them in disgust.

"Ah fuck," Phil said, his eyes on Caroline too. "Dude, get her! Get her now!"

His words were ignored by James, who just sat there and shrank under her gaze. Natalya quickly got up to her feet and put herself in between James and Caroline. "Get away from him," she growled.

One of Caroline's eyebrows went up as she walked down a couple of the stairs. "Why?" Her other eyebrow went up as Natalya walked up the stairs and met her head on. "What are you going to do if I don't?" She pushed Nattie on the chest with one hand.

Natalya stumbled back a bit and then responded with a hard shove to Caroline's chest. Caroline actually fell back to the step and then her eyes narrowed dangerously as shelunged at Natalya, her hands wrapping around her throat as they tumbled down the stairs. Caroline managed to land on top when they got down to the floor and her grip on Nattie's neck tightened even more. Natalya tried to pry Caroline's fingers off but her grip was scary tight. Her grip was so tight she couldn't even attempt to take a breath.

"Hey!" Phil had managed to get up on his good leg and hop over so he could try to yank Caroline off of Natalya. "HEY!" The instant he touched Caroline he got punched in the stomach and he fell down to the floor. It provided enough of a distraction though for Natalya to get her legs up under Caroline and use all her leg strength to kick her off. The rush of oxygen that went into her lungs made her head spin and she scrambled back on her arms, trying to regain her bearings. Caroline was already coming at her again, her face contorted with rage. Nattie kicked her feet out again, this time catching Caroline in the legs and making her fall face first on to her raised knee. That actually hurt her more than she thought it would but she ignored her pain in favor of yanking Caroline the rest of the way down by her hair and driving her fist into her face.

From the stairs James watched the two women go at it, completely torn about what to do. He had to help Caroline to keep her happy so she would help him but he didn't want to hurt Nattie. She was pretty much the closest thing he had to a daughter; hurting her was the last thing on his mind. So he stayed back, watching Natalya and Caroline roll across the floor, punching the shit out of each other. Every time Caroline got the advantage Phil tried to run interference, which kept getting him hit over and over again. It kept allowing for Nattie to keep getting back her advantage though. Or, at least it did until Caroline managed to break her nose and then slam her face so hard into the floor that it nearly knocked her unconscious. "Fucking BITCH!" She got back up to her feet and gave Phil a hard kick to the face to knock him loopy. "YOU fucking stay down!" She bent over and took off his belt, kicking him in the ribs before looking up at James with narrowed eyes. "YOU!"

James flinched but made no move to get away as Caroline stormed over to him. That turned out to be a mistake because he immediately got hit right in the face with the belt. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" She hit him with the belt again. "Huh? What the FUCK do you think you're doing?" She hit him even harder, this time with the buckle part of the belt. "You're just going to sit there? You're going to fucking sit there while this bitch hits me?" She kept hitting him over and over again, clearly getting warmed up. "Fucking USELESS son of a bitch!" She ripped the knife out of his hands and walloped him again. "Fucking STUPID worthless piece of SHIT!"

…

"Coopy what if we never find Daddy?" Connor asked as he followed closely behind Cooper. They were trying to find James but the search wasn't going that great so far. Connor was quite vocally displaying his frustration while Cooper was trying to keep his hidden. It was hard though, and Connor's constant barrage of whining and questions weren't helping anything. "What if he's losted forever and ever? What if-"

"We're going to find him," Cooper interrupted, stopping to look back and face Connor. "Okay? Just calm down and let me think."

"Okay Coopy." Connor shut his mouth and waited for about three seconds before frowning. "You done thinking yet Coopy?"

"Fucking STUPID worthless piece of SHIT!"

Connor's eyes widened. "Who was THAT Coopy?"

Cooper shook his head. "I have no idea."

"Leave him ALONE!"

"Nattie!" They both knew that voice and Connor was jumping at the bit to inform Cooper of what he already knew. "It's Nattie Coopy! It's Nattie!" He squeezed Cooper's hand so hard that it felt like the bones in his hand were going to break. "Come on Coopy let's go find her! Let's go let's go let's go!"

"Okay OKAY!" Cooper followed the hyped up Connor and rolled his eyes as he did it. "Just fucking calm down."

"Youuuuuu can't make me!"

Cooper just rolled his eyes again. _At least he's still the same…_maybe that wasn't the greatest thing ever but it was comforting in its own way.

…

Natalya had come to to see that Caroline was beating the fuck out of James but she was too woozy to do much about it. Phil was out of it too, Jeff had no idea what was going on and James was just fucking taking it. "James!" She spit out some of the blood that had went down to her mouth and tried to get back up to her feet. "Hit her!"

James heard what Nattie said but he made no move to do any such thing. He knew way too well what that resulted in. She was pissed enough as it was, he wasn't planning on adding to it.

"DADDY!"

Caroline froze mid-swing and James's eyes just about popped out of his head. "_Connor_?" There they were, both Cooper and Connor standing just a few feet away from him. The happiness that soared up inside of him at the sight of them came crashing down as he realized that Caroline was not only looking at them with an evil expression on her face, but she was daring to take a step towards them. "Don't you-" He didn't even get to finish his sentence. His own knife was slammed into his stomach with as much force as Caroline could muster. The shock of it made time stand still for a few seconds before the pain set in and he went down on his knees, his mind screaming all kinds of curses but his mouth just hanging open silently.

"DAD!"

"BAD LADY! BAD BAD LADY!" Connor went bezerk, ripping himself from Cooper's grip and lunging at her.

"CONNOR DON'T!" Natalya screamed.

Too late. Caroline let go of the knife that was still in James's stomach and moved out of the way as Connor came at her, letting his own momentum send him crashing to the ground. "Awwwww is the mongoloid upset?" she asked in a fake cutesey voice before scowling and kicking Connor right in the ribs as he was trying to get up.

Cooper tried to grab Caroline to keep her from kicking Connor again but got kicked in the balls so hard for his trouble that it made him want to throw up. "YOU stay down," Caroline growled. "I'll get to you in a bit." She shoved him away and started advancing on Connor once more. Phil and Nattie tried to run interference but down they went as well. "Hey faggot!" she yelled at Jeff, who finally turned his head somewhat in her direction. "You gonna do something about this?"

He didn't answer her. She immediately scowled and abandoned Connor for the moment so she could rip Jeff up by his hair. "Mother fucker I was talk-what the fuck is wrong with your eyes?" This time that actually was a rhetorical question because she truly didn't give a shit. She just leveled Jeff with a punch and then stomped on his throat, crushing his windpipe. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Connor trying to get back over to James and Cooper and she hopped over the couch and grabbed him by his ankle. "Ohhhhh no you you don't."

"Let go of me!" Connor screamed. He tried to kick her and claw his way away. "Let go! Daddy! DADDY!"

Hearing Connor scream like that woke something the fuck back up in James. He grabbed the handle of the knife that was still in him and yanked it out, grunting in pain as the blood flowed more freely out of him. Adrenaline and knowing what would happen to Connor if he didn't do something fueled him to get up to his feet and yank Caroline off of Connor by her hair. She went to swing at him but his knife went into her chest before she could connect with the hit. Her arm dropped uselessly to her side and he yanked the knife back out and stabbed her several more times. He literally stabbed her until the strength left his body and he dropped her before falling to the ground himself, a hand over his stomach to try to stop the blood that was still pouring out of him.


	30. Final Showdown

**A/N: Almost done with this wild ride ladies and gentlemen. This is the second to last chapter and for those who have lost count, Natalya, Phil, Cooper and Connor are definitely alive, Jeff's dead and as for James…well we'll find out right now.**

…

"Daddy!" Connor and Cooper scrambled over to James, Natalya and Phil not far behind them. "Daddy Daddy Daddy!" Connor shook his head in denial as Cooper took off his shirt and put it against James's wound to try to help stop the bleeding. "No Daddy NO!" He shook his hair more, his hair whipping right into his eyes. "Daddy Daddy Daddy." He tried to shake James but Natalya stopped him so he wouldn't jar the older man's injuries. "Daddy!" He looked at Cooper desperately. "Coopy DO something!"

"I'm trying!" Cooper put more pressure on James's wound, trying his best to ignore the way the blood was just soaking his shirt. James was still conscious and breathing but the situation was about as far from good as it could possibly get. "Jesus Christ Dad hang on. Just hang on please hang on."

"Fuck…" James said in under his breath. He was in so much pain at the moment that he could barely even think. He just wanted to pass out so he could escape it but he had enough presence of mind to realize that if he did that, he was probably not going to wake back up. So awake he stayed, fighting for every breath that he was taking.

"Daddy you CAN'T die," Connor pleaded. "That's not allowed Daddy NO!"

Natalya and Phil exchanged uncomfortable glances. James needed a hospital right this instant but there was no way he was going to get to one unless some kind of miracle happened.

"Oh no! Daddy's got a big boo boo doesn't he?"

Everybody's stomach collectively dropped as they looked up to see Lucy standing there just a few feet away from them. She had the biggest grin on her face, not only because Caroline was finally dead but also because she found amusement in watching the pure misery in front of her. "Is it a serious boo boo?" She was talking in this cutesy little baby voice to mock Connor. "Is he going to die?"

"Shut up bitch," James managed to growl. It took quite a bit of effort but he managed to raise his head and sneer at her. If he was indeed going to go out then he was going out as defiantly as he could manage.

"Ooooh someone's still feisty." The smirk on her face turned into a scowl as she stepped closer. "I told you." She was looking right at Connor as she said that. She had started this by tormenting Connor and was going back to it. "I told you right from the start. I told you you were all going to die."

"Shut up," Cooper said, trying to pull Connor closer to him while keeping the pressure on James's wound.

Lucy wasn't listening. She had Connor in tears and wasn't about to stop now. "Daddy's going to die right here and then you're all going to die with him. And then you'll get to play with me forever and ever and-"

Something inside Connor's brain snapped right at that moment. Everything that had happened and the realization it was never going to stop broke though to him and instead of the mind numbing fear came a rage he hadn't ever felt before. A wild scream tore through his throat and before anyone could even blink the knife that was laying there still coated with James and Caroline's blood was in his hands and he drove the blade into Lucy's stomach with as much force as he could muster.

"Holy SHIT!" Phil yelled, pretty much summing up everybody's reaction.

Lucy's eyes nearly popped out of her head as she looked down at the knife sticking out of her stomach. She clearly couldn't believe it. Out of everyone there she could believe it the least. In all of her years of running this little hotel of horrors that had never happened to her before. Not even Caroline had managed this.

"Finish her!" Cooper yelled, getting over his shock to shout instructions to Connor. "Fucking kill her! Kill her kill her-"

Lucy screamed now, an ear piercing shriek that broke all the windows in the hotel and sent the group (minus James) recoiling back. The little distraction allowed her to make a break for it and the dogs came running to provide even more of a distraction. Connor didn't give a fuck about them though. The rage that had risen up in him hadn't been tamed with just stabbing Lucy. He was on his feet and following her before anyone could stop him. One of the dogs bit his leg to try to stop him and got its neck broken for it. Cooper, who had been about to try to come to the rescue, stopped right in his tracks at that. Connor LOVED animals; he never intentionally hurt one ever. Yet he just did and when another one pounced on him he rolled with it, sinking his own teeth into the canine's throat and literally ripping it out. The other dogs immediately backed off and just let him run up the stairs after Lucy.

"Go after him," James said as he weakly tried to push Cooper after him.

"Dad-"

"GO! NOW damn it!"

"I've got him," Natalya said, taking care of the duty of tending to the bleeding James. "Just go."

Cooper nodded and ran up the stairs himself, giving a passing glance of disbelief to Phil, who was now actually petting one of the dogs that had killed Dolph earlier and had wanted to kill him just a little bit ago.

"You know…you take the crazy demon bitch out of the picture and these dogs really aren't that bad."

…

"Lucy?" Mary had heard Lucy's scream and had come to investigate it, clutching a little doll tightly in her hand as she did it. "Lucy? Are you okay?" She didn't get an answer but she did see her twin dragging herself towards her, her hand yanking out the knife that was still in her stomach. "Lucy!"

"Shut up," Lucy growled. This was not good. She was getting weaker and weaker by the second. He hadn't killed her immediately but he got her pretty good. It was more than enough reason to get extremely worried.

Mary shook her head in denial. Her eyes were about to pop out of her head at the sight of all the blood…which wasn't red like the way blood should be. It was black and it made her take a step back and shake her head. "Lucy…"

"I said shut UP!" Lucy stopped to take a breath and then gave Mary a scathing glare. "Help me you bitch."

"O-okay Lucy…"

…

Connor tore threw the hallways, opening door after door on his search for Lucy. He did manage to find Mike and Michelle's body and he ripped the ax out of Michelle's body and held on to it in a death grip as he continued to tear through the hallways. He had no idea where he was even going. He just kept kicking open door after door, coming up empty time and time again until finally, his luck decided to change. He kicked open a door and found Mary trying to tend to Lucy in the room he had actually first seen them in to begin with. He didn't actually notice that though. He only saw Lucy and he swung the ax down towards her head. She just managed to roll out of the way and the blade went into the bed instead.

"Stop!" Mary yelled. "Stop stop STOP!"

Connor wasn't listening. He yanked the ax out of the bed and swung it again. Lucy moved again and tried to stab Connor with the knife she still had. He jumped mostly out of the way though she did manage to rip the knife along part of his leg. He fell back in pain and she tried to stab him again but he got his other leg up and kicked her off so hard that she hit the wall. Mary was still screaming for him to stop but no fucks were given by Connor. He was up in a heartbeat and swinging his ax again, this time taking off Lucy's head with one swing. "DIE!" he screamed, bringing the ax down over and over again on Lucy's now headless body. "DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!" Every "die" had him chopping away at her body until she was in pieces in front of him-and even then he didn't really stop until Cooper grabbed him and gently took the ax out of his hands.

"It's over. You got her. It's over." He kissed Connor's cheek and shook his head at Mary, who was crying and cradling her dead "sister's" head. "It's over."

…

Cooper and Connor came down the stairs to find Phil still petting the dog and Nattie still tending to James, who's look of relief was a bit masked by the pain he was still in. "Boys…"

"Daddy I did it!" Connor announced proudly. "I did it I killed the bad lady!"

"You…?" James looked at Cooper who nodded.

"Hacked the bitch to pieces. I've never been more proud of him." He put one of James's arms around his shoulder and motioned for Nattie to help him lift him. "Now grab Princess over there," he told Connor. "So we can get the fuck out of here."

"Oh come on now, don't-hey! HEY!" He shook his head as Connor threw him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "I am injured here! Injured!" He shook his head as he was ignored and they all headed for the door. "Come on Sparky! Come on boy! We're blowing this joint."

"Sparky?" James shook his head, a ghost of a smile crossing across his lips as the dog barked and followed them happily. "You're a fucking idiot Princess."

"Says the guy who got himself stabbed. Why aren't you dead yet?"

"Because nobody else is dying here," Cooper said, breathing a huge sigh of relief as they went right out the front door with no problem. "Not ever again."


	31. Fear Never Dies

They literally all piled into the nearest car, not even knowing who's it even was. That was a detail that didn't matter in the slightest bit. What mattered was Cooper hotwiring the damn thing while Phil sat up front with Sparky and Natalya and Connor tried to keep James from bleeding to death in the backseat. "Shouldn't we like burn it down or something?" Natalya asked as she cast a nervous look back at the hotel. "It feels like we should burn it."

"You wanna go back and do it, be my guest," Phil said as he tried to get Sparky to settle down. "I'm voting we just get the hell out of here while we still can." He scratched behind Sparky's ears. "What do you think Sparky boy?"

Sparky barked once and licked Phil's face.

"You know…" James stopped to cough weakly "I used to have a dog named Sparky…"

"You did?" Phil looked back to see James nod. "Well fuck." He grabbed Sparky's face and made him look at him. "You are now Spartacus instead. You hear me."

The newly christened Spartacus licked his face again.

The car roared to life as Cooper's hotwiring worked and he tore out of there as fast as he possibly could. The snow from the storm that had trapped them there in the first place had completely disappeared. Had it even really snowed? Or had it been some sort of ploy by Lucy to get them in the hotel in the first place? Cooper had no fucking idea and he couldn't give much of a fuck about it. They were out and they were getting the fuck to the hospital. And he didn't know about the others but he was never setting foot in another hotel. Not ever.

Connor turned himself around to stare back at the hotel through the back window. Mary was standing at the doors, staring at them as they went. Connor stared back at her until the hotel was completely out of sight and then turned back around to help Natalya once again.

…

The moment they got to the hospital James was whisked off to get blood transfusions and the others were taken back to get their various injuries looked at. Spartacus went with Phil even though that normally wasn't allowed in the least. The nurses tried to take him back outside but after his eyes turned bright red they got scared and backed off. The doctors all asked them what had happened but none of them said a word beyond Connor, who only told them that a "bad place" hurt them. Not the most helpful of information but that was all they got. It wasn't like they were going to be believed anyway. A haunted hotel with a fear demon disguised as a little girl running the show? No. Even Connor wasn't dumb enough to think anyone else would buy that. So mouths were kept shut and one by one, they were finished up on and they waited to get word on James. Cooper took to pacing the entire room while Phil and Connor bickered over who got to pet Spartacus and Nattie just sat there and observed it all.

She was honestly trying to keep her mind as blank as possible so the reality of the situation wouldn't sink in. Twenty five of her co-workers were dead. It was hard to wrap her mind around. The number alone was hard to believe and the fact that she wouldn't be seeing them every day anymore like she always did was even more unbelievable. It occurred to her that someone was going to have to tell Vince and she knew that she definitely didn't want it to be her. She didn't know how that news could be broken to him without sending him completely out of orbit. She would have to make Phil do it or something.

As the sun started to rise a doctor finally came into the room to talk to them. "How's our dad?" Cooper asked as he pulled Connor up to his feet. "Is he alright? Is-"

"He's fine," the doctor assured him. "You can see him now."

"Fuckin' fabulous," Phil said under his breath. It was hard to tell if he was being sarcastic and he got a lot of strange looks for that. "I didn't mean that."

"I'm sure you didn't." Natalya helped him get into his wheelchair and followed Cooper, Connor and the doctor to James's room. Spartacus trailed behind them faithfully, growling at another doctor that went by them before slipping around them as they went into the room and jumping up on to the bed with James. "Hey! Hey! Spartacus no! He's evil don't go near him!"

"Fuck you Princess," James groaned as he pushed Spartacus a little bit to the side so he wasn't directly on him. "You-" The rest of what he said was lost as Cooper and Connor practically pounced on him.

"Daddy Daddy Daddy!" Connor was squeezing James's neck so tightly that he could barely even breathe. "You're alive! You're alive you are!"

"Yeah…though I might not be for long if you don't stop…"

"Loosen up you idiot," Cooper said, yanking Connor back a bit and glaring at him. "You're going to hurt him." He shook his head as Connor pouted his lips and then turned back to James. "You can't do this shit to us Dad. That almost dying shit isn't a joke."

"I wasn't aware I did it for laughs," James said, trying to sit himself up.

"Nooooo no no." Cooper shook his head and put his hands on James's chest to keep him down. "You're not doing THAT. You'll fuck up your stitches."

"Ugh…" James tried one more time before giving in and laying back. "I feel like shit."

"At least you're alive," Phil pointed out. "That's more than we can say about…well everyone."

"What the hell do we even do now?" Natalya asked. "Because I'm at a loss."

"Uh…" Cooper tried to come up with something but he couldn't. He was at a loss too. "Dad? What do you think?"

"I think a need a fucking drink," James said.

"Oh that's nice. Solve this via alcohol-"

"Princess, my mortally wounded ass will get off this bed and kick you out of that chair if you do not shut the fuck up."

Phil made a face at him but before he could say anything Connor was all up in James's business. "Daddy I killed Lucy," he said, nodding quite eagerly. "Remember Daddy? I killed her I did I got her."

"I know you did," he assured him. "And I'm fucking glad of it." They would all probably be dead if he hadn't. He sure as hell would be but he wasn't going to dwell on that too much.

"So it's over, right Daddy? She's gone for forever right?"

"Right." James smoothed down Connor's hair and nodded. "She's gone forever. She won't be hurting anyone again."

…

"This place is creepy," Brie Bella complained as she followed her twin sister Nikki into the hotel. Gail Kim, Matt Striker and Todd Grisham weren't far behind them. They had all been driving for hours now and were stopping here because every other hotel they had gone to had been booked. "What is this place even called anyway?"

"Uh…" Nikki went up to the receptionists desk and hit the bell to get someone's attention. "the Briarwood Hotel I think. I know Maryse stayed here a few days ago or whatever." She put her hand in her pocket and took out her phone to check it. "And she STILL hasn't called me back. Are you kidding me?"

"This place looks deserted," Matt noted, keeping the door open in case they were going to have to just leave again. "Are you sure this is the right place?"

"I'm pretty sure…"

"Well damn it," Gail shook her head and started to look around. "Hello? Anyone here?" She took a few steps forward before coming to a stop and her eyes widening in surprise. The others looked in the direction she was and gasped. A little girl wearing a blue dress was standing not far away from them, a doll clutched in one arm and what looked to be her dead twin clutched in the other.

"She says she still wants to play a game…"

The door slammed shut on it's own, silencing Brie as she began to scream.


End file.
